We are back with a new edition of Saturday Night Music Club! The SNMC started up as an idea I had years ago - to recapture the feeling of being a kid and getting together with your friends in the basement to listen and discuss music. Because of the pandemic, a group of us got together over video chat to share and discuss music. This month we welcome Sarah Celentano to the club!
This month's theme: Scandinavia. Each member had to select a record for which the band / artist is from a Scandinavian country. That includes Sweden, Finland, Norway, Denmark and Iceland. A track from each record (when available) is collected in an ongoing SNMC Spotify playlist at the bottom of this post. So please listen in and enjoy the tunes along with us.
As always, the SNMC begins with a trivia contest based around the chosen theme. There were 20 questions in total. Some that were asked: This record store in Oslo, Norway was ground zero for the Second Wave of Black Metal in the early 90s; Name 5 of the 8 ABBA studio albums; This Danish actor is known for his role as a cannibalistic medical professional in the TV series based on characters from Thomas Harris literary work Red Dragon; This country's 6th largest glacier was used as a filming location for the ice planet Hoth in Episode 5 of the Star Wars saga; Match these bands with their country of origin: Sigur Ros / The Knife / Teddybears / Darkthrone / Mercyful Fate; This Danish-Norwegian Europop outfit is perhaps best known for a double entendre-filled, bubble gum pop smash hit that got them in hot water with the Mattel company. How'd you do?
Trivia Rankings: Sarah Q (8 points - winner), Frank / Sarah C (6 points), Kevin (4 points), Jaymz (3 points) and Dream Pop Jesse / Thalia (2 points).
Jesse's "off-limits artist" of the month: Bjork
Audra | Life on this Planet
Which Scandinavian country are you representing?
Sweden
Which album?
Which album?
First Aid Kit - Stay Gold (Columbia | 2013). Their glorious 3rd record.
Why did you choose this record?
Iceland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland - I mean, I could've went in so many directions. It was between Mew and First Aid Kit, and Thalia made the decision for me when she played a Mew record for the group. Problem solved. I was hooked on FAK after hearing their ode to Gram Parsons and Emmylou Harris on 2012's wonderful sophomore effort The Lion's Roar. When we did our Best Albums of the Decade feature at the end of 2019, I chose Stay Gold as my favorite to represent 2014. I have a soft spot for sibling bands and the Söderberg sisters are two of the most talented singers and songwriters to emerge over the last 10 or so years.
Which track did you play for the group?
The entire album is gold, but "Waitress Song" always hits me especially hard. It's one of those rare songs that quickly weaves its way under your skin and rests itself into your soul. It immediately transports me back in time to the neighborhood of my youth in Chicago. Untouchable.
Describe this album in one sentence:
Luxuriously harmonized, heartfelt Americana via Sweden.
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
There was so much great music shared by everyone. I've been fully submerged since, revisiting the first two Bel Canto records. I discovered them in the early 90s with the purchase of their debut White Out Conditions. I relate that album to Pieter Nooten & Michael Brook's masterwork Sleeps with the Fishes, which were bought on the same day (or so memory tells me). Coincidentally they both came out in 1987. Sarah Q's Raveonettes pick was a winner, Sarah C's Bathory choice was unexpected and a welcomed shot of adrenaline, and I played my Sibelius CD the day after. I just noticed that no one represented Iceland!
Which album?
The Raveonettes - Lust Lust Lust. Released first in the UK in 2007 on Fierce Panda, February 19 2008 here in the US on Vice Records. Thank goodness they implemented Global Release Day in 2015 where music releases are now uniformly available internationally on the same day! This is their 3rd studio album.
Why did you choose this record?
The Scandinavian pool of musicians is glistening and vast, it was extremely difficult to choose just one. Between picking up their first 2 albums Chain Gang of Love & Pretty in Black reissued this year and tracks from their 4th album In and Out of Control soundtracking a recent binging of Gossip Girl, I became reunited with The Raveonettes catalog...and it felt so good. I get this anxious elation when choosing my album for Music Club - is this something no one else will pick, is this something everyone will enjoy? I landed on The Raveonettes because when I broke it down, they embody so many elements of music styles and eras it actually creates a signature sound. They twisted the Everly Brothers by adding female harmonies, add in some Ronnettes but make them less sweet & more sensual, throw in the underlying rhythm from bass & drums you'd hear in compositions from the 60's, surf guitar, garage fuzz, art rock ala Velvet Underground and that 90's alternative edge. I selected Lust Lust Lust due to the clarity of all of the layers I just mentioned. This was a deep dive. I wound up purchasing one half of the duo Sune Rose Wagner's solo album which is in full Danish and apparently inspired English re-recordings on some songs for their 5th album Raven in the Grave. Added bonus, Sune has produced a few albums for my beloved Dum Dum Girls.
Which track did you play for the group?
"Dead Sound"
Describe the album in one sentence:
Salacious surf noir sister of Jesus & Mary Chain's Automatic performed in the Red Room.
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
First off I want to commend the group for the incredible variety that graced our ears, I loved every second and every style. I came back around to Jaymz and his fellow Danish selection Agnes Obel - Citizen of Glass. I recall hearing a song of hers in an episode of The Mist TV series and intended to delve deeper but didn't because I fail at time management for leisure. Citizen of Glass has an apparent German influence surely from her time in Berlin and intriguing instrumentation particularly the use of trautonium. Looking fwd to picking up a physical copy soon.
FRANK DESERTO
Brooklyn, NY | The Harrow, Systems of Romance, Post-Punk.com
Which Scandinavian country are you representing?
Brooklyn, NY | The Harrow, Systems of Romance, Post-Punk.com
Which Scandinavian country are you representing?
Norway, Europe, Northern Hemisphere, Earth, The Universe
Which album?
Which album?
Bel Canto - Birds of Passage. Released in 1989 on the Crammed Discs label (also home to the equally excellent Minimal Compact), a semi-unfortunate label name that always brings out the inner sixth grader in me. Birds of Passage is the band's second record in a holy trinity of records, but the first I heard from the band. I fall off with them after their third record, the equally sublime Shimmering, Warm and Bright.
Why did you choose this album?
No matter how old I get and how much other music I discover, Bel Canto's music is forever top-tier. It's not nostalgia for me, but most of the music I fell in love with between 2000-2004 remains the most vital and still cuts the deepest, as I was discovering myself in many ways. I found my own footing, my personality, great love and loss, expanded my taste, and opened my mind to a plethora of sounds and experiences that make up the core of who I am, even to date. Bel Canto is one of my deepest loves from the post-Cocteau Twins dominated landscape and I have yet to burn out on them after all this time. Even in the past year or two, the trio of early Bel Canto records have clocked more plays than I can recall, and still feature prominently in my heart and DJ sets alike.
Which track did you play for the group?
I chose "A Shoulder to the Wheel," which I only recently discovered was a promotional single and came complete with a video, which was a little jarring to watch, as I have these deep-seeded night-time memories associated with this track. It's bizarre to me to see the band spinning and romping through a sunny forest or splattering paint in an empty room. While the song and its associations feel timeless to me, the video feels dated in a way that I can't help but chuckle at a little. However, the song still gives me chills and has appeared in many sets, mixtapes, and memories.
Describe this album in one sentence:
Serene, sexy, night music with the occasional timpani for good measure.
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
Sarah's Bathory pick was spot on, fresh in mind and fresh in our ears - a tumultuous and chaotic listen in an otherwise happy time in our lives. Sarah Q. Helm's Raveonettes pick reminded me that while I have all their records kicking around in a digital format, I really ought to spend more time with them. Kevin's Sibelius piece felt against the grain in the best way possible, filling a space that otherwise wasn't covered but still deep seeded in my own love of deep, passionate beauty.
SARAH CELENTANO
Brooklyn, NY
Which Scandinavian country are you representing?
Sweden
Which album?
Which album?
My pick was the 1984 self-titled debut album from Swedish black metal group Bathory. The record was released on Black Mark, which at the time was a sublabel of Tyfon Grammofon, which was owned by the father of Bathory singer Quorthon. This will be my only pedantic comment (not easy for a historian!).
Why did you choose this record?
I chose this album because black metal always makes for an interesting conversation topic due to the controversy that tends to surround it. Lately I've been indulging in lots of "problematic" artists and getting comfortable with separating the work from the creator; people like Louis CK, Woody Allen, the list goes on (and on and on). Bathory's no exception to this—I mean, they have a song entitled "Blood and Soil," a well-known Nazi motto that was chanted during the white supremacist march in Charlottesville. And as a medievalist, I'm well acquainted with how an imagined (and inaccurate) white Viking or "Anglo-Saxon" past has been used for racist ends in the present. It's a lot to consider. I also tend to listen to intense music when life becomes "lighter," I guess to counterbalance things. Slayer during the holidays. Diamanda Galás around Easter (Plague Mass draws on Holy Week liturgy in a way that is just devastating). Fantômas for a springtime walk in the park. Alice in Chains' Dirt while making dinner with Frank. Now I'm thinking maybe we're just always intense operators...
Which track did you play for the group?
I chose the third track, "Reaper," because it's my favorite from this album (with "War" being a close second). I think it best represents the speedy, Motörhead-style approach that informed Bathory's work before they switched things up for a more epic folk/Viking metal sound. It's not that I don't like their later stuff (for example, I think "The Lake" is beautiful)—I'm just more often in the mood for something faster and harder, and I love the grainy, low-fi rawness of the earlier work.
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
I liked everyone's selections and thought this was a nicely balanced mix. But the standouts for me were Kevin's Sibelius choice—I love Sibelius and almost selected the fourth movement from Symphony No 1 in E minor as my track—and Bret's First Aid Kit track, which made me nostalgic for my years of living in Austin.
Norway
Which album?
Which album?
Kings of Convenience - Riot on an Empty Street (Astralwerks | 2004). Their second album.
Why did you choose this record?
I found Kings of Convenience in 2001 and collected their CD singles mainly because I love Simon and Garfunkel, but also because their cover art is sweet - kind of an Ikea furniture catalog feel, tidy rooms with a rug and a mid century modern sofa that makes comfort instantaneously come over all who enter just like the music contained on the discs the cover art houses.
Which track did you play for the group?
I chose "I'd Rather Dance With You" because I love the accompanying video as much as the song itself. One of the most lively songs from the album, it always stood out to me.
Describe this album in one sentence:
Describe this album in one sentence:
A cool, cool breeze on a warm day. Only in the shade it's cloudy and rainy! (Editor's note: huh)
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
I am a fan of First Aid Kit and Mew so they are very familiar territory. As for the others, I need more exposure. I was riding in the car with my uncle and cousin when Bel Canto's "Unicorn" came on. It was pretty awesome, but after the song ended the radio host didn't say who it was. Weeks later I heard it again and got the CD.
THALIA WILLIAMS
Phoenix, AZ | Futurekind
Which Scandinavian country are you representing?
Denmark
Which album?
Which album?
Mew - Visuals. Released April 28, 2017 on Play it Again Sam. Their 7th studio album.
Why did you choose this record?
One reason I chose this album is because the artwork (with its 3D cover) is particularly stunning and is such a great complement to the music. Singer Jonas Bjerre is a man of many talents and creates their visuals, which add so much to their live performances, album art and videos. Overall, the album really shows the maturity of the band. Seven albums in and they continue to create unexpected rhythms and melodies with their beautiful and unique dreampop/prog-pop sound.
Which track did you play for the group?
I chose the track “Twist Quest.” It’s funky, quirky and has that happy/sad feel I love so much, compelling lyrics and even some safe sax thrown in for good measure. :)
Describe this album in one sentence:
Unpredictable pop goodness
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
First Aid Kit - "Waitress Song" stood out in particular. I need to listen to more of their work because I love their vocals and harmonies.
Denmark
Which album?
Which album?
Agnes Obel - Citizen of Glass (PIAS | 2016). Her third album.
Why did you choose this record?
One of my favorite albums of 2016.
Which track did you play for the group?
Track 8: "Golden Green"
Describe this album in one sentence:
Woeful, dreamy and fascinating – and sounding like the wonder that one of those early Tim Burton films emits – this mostly piano and vocal album peppers in occasional cello, violin, mellotron and percussion to create something of a quietly mesmerized beauty.
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
Bel Canto and Kings of Convenience.
KEVIN LARKIN-ANGIOLI
Hudson Valley Region of New York | Twitter, Instagram
Which Scandinavian country are you representing?
Hudson Valley Region of New York | Twitter, Instagram
Which Scandinavian country are you representing?
Finland
Which album?
Which album?
SIBELIUS: Finlandia • Karelia Suite • Lemminkäinen Suite. My choice was the piece, “The Swan of Tuonela.” While many recordings exist and I have at least three separate ones in my collection, to share with the group via YouTube I selected the one released on Naxos Records in 1999, recorded in University Hall, Reykjavík from 28th – 31st May and on 25th November, 1997, performed by Iceland Symphony Orchestra with the Finnish Petri Sakari as Conductor and featuring Daŏ Kolbeinsson on cor anglais (or, English horn) and Richard Tchaikovsky on cello. A “greatest hit” of the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius, it is here placed in the full context of its four-movement suite or origin. This is Opus 22. Composed when he was 29, during “a quiet period” after his invention of the tone poem and before he set his hand to the creation of lasting symphonies.
Why did you choose this record?
When the theme of Scandinavia was announced, I was thrilled. Immediately brushing aside famous Icelandic choices we all know and love, as well as artists I’ve written about recently for this blog, I wondered what to select for the evening. Pretty soon thereafter, the idea of Sibelius presented itself to me. Which is fitting, because Sibelius seems to be an “idea”* as much as a composer and a body of work. The cover of my sixties RCA Victor “Living Stereo” Dynagroove record, FINLANDIA | MUSIC OF SIBELIUS | MORTON GOULD, appeared in my mind’s eye, seeming to sum up “Scandinavia,” or at least one part of it, in a charmingly retro record collector’s sort of way, to an outsider. The music of Sibelius is important to and expressive of Finnish culture, as I understand it. It often draws from rich native mythological and folkloric sources, taking this work, already obscure to an American, and translating it further out of language and deeper into comprehension via pure music. Sibelius’s work helped form a national identity and he’s honored on one of the bank notes of the currency of this “happiest country in the world,” even if he himself was seldom happy. (I once had a conversation with a young woman from Finland about awareness of his music and his stature as a cultural figure in which she helped me learn how to pronounce his name correctly and that was fun.) However, I selected not the recording from this 1963 record, but this 1999 compact disc, not only for its excellence, but for extra Scandinavia points: It was performed by the Iceland Symphony Orchestra and its Finnish Chief Conductor at the time, and recorded in Reykjavík.
This particular piece is so beautiful and is one I like to include in playlists occasionally. If I may speak for both Frank and myself, William Ørbit’s Pieces in a Modern Style album was an influence on our taste in classical music growing up, and one can easily imagine this piece included on that album: glacial, with a melodic lead line, symphonic swells beneath it and even some percussion. I selected it both for its intrinsic beauty and for its deep connection to Scandinavian culture. It’s drawn from a passage in the 19th-century collection of Finnish folklore and mythology, the Kalevala. I’ve never read it so I’ll be brief: The Tuonela in its title refers to the underworld. The swan is I believe one which Lemminkäinen is challenged, in mythological heroic fashion, to kill, and it takes its course on the black river which flows in this underworld. He’s all set to do so with a crossbow when he is killed by a slighted herdsman who set him up (and possibly summoned a sea serpent to get this killing done?). His lifeless body is pushed into the river and flows down it, eventually taken apart. Later resurrected, which shoehorns him neatly into Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey (a descent by an epic figure to an underworld and a symbolic death, with a triumphant return to the land of the living), this piece arrives at the nadir on that heroic parabola.
But I didn’t know any of that the first thirty or so times I listened to this piece, and am still learning more as I write this. I just knew it was an awe-inducing piece of music, searching and meditative and dreamlike and vaguely mournful. For me, it was a gateway drug to Sibelius, whose work I come back to again and again. For recommended reading, check out the chapter on him, “Apparition from the Woods: The Loneliness of Jean Sibelius,” from Alex Ross’s book, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.
Which track did you play for the group?
“The Swan of Tuonela,” sometimes the second and sometimes the third movement of the Lemminkäinen Suite, by Jean Sibelius (1865-1957). On this CD, it is track 7, movement 3 (its original placement).
Describe this album in one sentence:
At once a great introduction to the tone poems of Jean Sibelius and a moving, evocative score to a series of films you’ve never seen, a collection of stories you’ve never read, that somehow you nevertheless innately grok on subliminal level.
Any favorites that you heard from others throughout the night?
Once again, Jaymz picked something that absolutely entranced me and that I had never heard of. The rest of the evening’s picks were welcome reminders to spend more time with a band or artist I know but not well, with the exception of Jesse’s pick, which was super fun and had me chairdancing—an enticing taste.
* This idea is contested as time moves on. Sibelius has moved in and out of fashion through vogues and currents in contemporary classical music, sometimes celebrated and sometimes verboten. The concluding paragraph in the Sibelius chapter in Ross’ book THE REST IS NOISE sheds a little light on this: “In 1984, the great American avant-garde composer Morton Feldman gave a lecture at the relentlessly up-to-date Summer Courses for New Music, in Darmstadt, Germany. ‘The people who you think are radicals might really be conservatives,’ Feldman said on that occasion. ‘The people who you think are conservative might really be radical.’ And he began to hum the Sibelius Fifth.”
Here's the playlist!
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