Sweden has the dual honour of being the biggest producer of music outside the UK and US, and also the biggest consumer, though somewhat dubiously it is also one of the biggest 'quasi-legal downloaders'. Although I complained earlier about my inability to find good Swedish music, I am pleased to say that the situation has improved. There's still no really good indie station up here but at least swedish radio's P3 (http://sr.se/P3/) has some good progams, featuring new stuff that isn't so mainstream.
Another great source has been the blog http://swedesplease.blogspot.com/ (thanks Ryan). It covers a wide range of indie music, with a definite love of twee and electronic robot music, but also some funky stuff. Check it out. The commercial stations are dominated as back home by the mainstream top 40 stuff, like endless repeats of James Blunt, Justin Timberlake, Shakira etc. Now I must admit to being a bit of a sucker for a good pop song, or even an ordinary pop song, so you might think some of the stuff I am posting might make your eyes roll... but when you compare it to the bad stuff you'll realise where the baseline is on my scale. There will also be some funky, jazzy stuff here, as well some catchy twee and various other bits and pieces. Most of it is in English. And rest assured that Eurovision style schlager will be given the appropriate scorn and irony. Well, most of the time.
This is my favourite catchy tune from the summer. The Sounds - Toni the beat
Shout Out Louds - The Comeback
I heard about these guys while streaming JJJ when I first arrived... the best song on the album I think is '100 degrees', but the live versions on youtube aren't great quality. So instead you can have "the comeback":
I'm From Barcelona - We're From Barcelona A band getting big press in the blogs and lotsa youtube action is I'm from Barcelona. The oddly named band has 20-30 members, big moustache action, and simple, catchy, na-na-na-na songs. Love it. A surprisingly catchy, great singalong album. My favourite clip:
My favourite song: Treehouse (live)
Another na-na-na song, this time girly pop Veronica Maggio - Dumpa Mig (Dump me)
There has also been plenty of skit on the radio, and with only 5 stations available (and only 1 worth listening to), there is a lot of repetition, so some of the bad stuff just gets stuck in your head. The worst example is here for you first. As you will realise if you listen to some of the stuff that is to come, I don't mind a bit of robot electronica. This song Boten Anna, unbearably catchy to my ear with dispassionate robot-like singing and easy repetetive lyrics. But it is shite, and was one of the summer's biggest hits. If you read the lyrics you'll see the song is a bout a webbot called Anna that can 'ban you, ban you hard". Enjoy, if you dare.
Like several other countries in Europe, Sweden has a TV tax and TV taxmen who roam the streets, knocking on doors and peeking in windows to see if you have a TV. Now initially, I thought this was one of the stupidest things I'd heard of... I mean how many people here don't own a TV? Why not just add it in with the normal tax so everyone basically pays for SVT (Sverige TV - the national broadcaster), just like the taxpayer funded ABC back home. It would seem to make much more sense.
I think I'm changing my mind.
Not because I enjoy paying the tax - I got caught in my new apartment by phone and didn't realise that it was the deceptively titled "Radiotjänst" that administers the TV tax. So I said "yes" to owning a TV. Then I was told several times in English I was told "You have a TV, so you must pay tax. It is Swedish Law".
The next day I also got a visit from a roaming TV taxman, who officially informed me that he could see my TV from my door, marked it on his form which I had to sign. The tax costs 1920kr a year (~350 AUD) just for the honour of owning up to ten TVs, payable quarterly.
Most, but not all Swedes pay the tax. Some seem to believe that if you slam the door in the taxmans face, even if they see the tv, as long as you don't admit it they are powerless to report you. I don't think it's quite true, and some people do end up in court. Here in the student areas the reports of tv taxmen on the prowl makes people very cautious before opening the door. My neighbour is ultra paranoid and also turns off the tv and radio every time the phone rings.
But she's not the only one...
About a month ago there was a national election here, and the lefty Social Democrats lost for only the 4th time since 1932. And only a week or so after officially taking over power, the skeleton started being marched out of the closets - 2 ministers have resigned due to under the table employment of nannies, and for not paying the TV tax. In fact the Culture minister, which oversees SVT and the TV tax system, was discovered to have not paid her TV tax for the last 16 years. Not exactly a model citizen. The scandal and subsequent exposure meant that in one week another 6000 Swedes suddenly discovered a need to pay up too.
So 4 weeks and 480 kronor later, why don't I think the TV tax system is stupid? Because of the 'B' word - Bias. Those back home who watch the ABC or read the papers probably can't avoid the constant discussion about political bias on the ABC. It has been constantly attacked by the current Liberal government, which tried to impose it's will on the board and force it to own up to being biased against it. The crazy thing is, the previous Labour government also believed the same thing. So no government is ever happy about the ABC, and both sides believe it favours the other, so its independance is always under attack. Don't believe me? Read this.
Here the head of SVT believes that by colllecting its funding independantly of the government, there is no fear of the government trying to control it by using its funding as a hostage. I honestly don't know how much the government tries to influence it, but I think she has a point. If the ABC didn't rely on the government supplying the 8 cents a day they could be free from wasting the same taxpayers money fighting the government over bias allegations.
The trip home is over, and didn't involve talking rabbits or mushrooms like those above. It was strange to come back. My 16 days in Melbourne were a whirlwind, and it was weird knowing that it was only a temporary visit. I have never lived with my parents in their current house, except for the one night before I left last year, so it didn't feel exactly like coming 'home'. It was also strange to be sitting in my old house playing with Zara, but it being kinda my old house but kinda not - with a mix of mine and Alex's stuff filling up the living room and adorning the walls. It was unsettling.
But it was also great to catch up with everyone that I did, and especially to spend time with my family.
So what is going on up here? Well, I've settled back into life here pretty quickly. I'm enjoying the convenience of the 3 minute bike ride to work, I know a few people in my building, including my neighbour, unlike last year. I've joined the big band - on drums - but more about that later. There are badminton drop-in sessions running now so I don't have to rely on finding idle Indian exchange students to play with. My sporadic gym-going is a bit less sporadic. A group of us (3, with an after-dinner addition) get together and cook for each other once a week, which has lasted 4 weeks so far. At work I have more to do; in addition to my solo work figuring out what Thor's hammers are doing in my coatings, I am involved in some student supervision, a short course and some grant writing. And I have moved office, now sharing with a dart-crazed composites guy. Future plans include the Umeå Jazz Festival, another visit from Japan after Christmas, and there is talk of a week in Rome with my cousin Chris from Sydney. Unfortunately my band committment means I miss out on a killer killer-whale watching safari. Other things I haven't done up here: pimpling (ice-fishing), snowmobiling, lots of x-country skiiing, m.m.)
So what about the weather? Now that I've been here for a year the massive novelty has just about worn off, so this will probalby be the last time I go on and on about it in such detail (though I should say yesterday was my first walk to work at minus temperatures for the autumn).
One day of summer was all that was left up here before autumn hit. Autumn here so far has been what Melbournites would describe as a cold winter - 3-10 degrees during the day, occasionally sub-zero at night, light rain for two weeks straight. Each week brings a noticeable change to the colour of the trees - the mass of gold when I got back is now withering and half gone. Sunset was about 7:30 three weeks ago, about 6 now. That was a big relief - coming back and being able to sleep until the alarm went off rather than when the sun came up at 4 am.I love sunsets, and there have still been some great ones, but when I'm in my pj's and horizontal indoors, I could care less.
Apparently last summer was the longest and driest on record - from what I read you (back home) are about the face the same thing. I was up here in June when summer started, but from July I was away for 7 of the 10 weeks of summer, so didn't experience much of it. Normally it reaches 30o at least once a summer, but this year not at all. So both the max and min temps I have experienced are both 29oC (+&-). I'm hoping break the minus record though this winter. (Yesterday was the first sub-zero walk to work).
So things are reasonably settled which is why the nature of the blog will probably change a little. New things are going to creep into the blog. There'll probably be less of the 'look at what I'm doing' kind of post, and maybe a bit more of a discussion about stuff happening in Sweden generally. Future topics may include: "TV taxes and why the Minister for TV doesn't have to pay, but I do" and "death and mayhem in Sweden" - yes, plenty goes on here. When was the last time you heard about a man walking down the street with a bomb strapped to his chest after being kidnapped for a week?
Also, through the wonder that is Youtube, I will link to some of the Swedish music that I've been getting into here. Not all of it is great, but like Stockholm Syndrome (not the Muse song) - if you can't escape eventually you succumb to its charms.
So to start, some good stuff: I'm a bit of a sucker for electro-pop. One of my big faves here is The Knife, though the singing which for some reason always reminds of Japanese pop bands. Here is The Knife - Heartbeats.
Or Here. I am playing around with embedding videdo....
