Smells Like Pop

The Deer Tracks leave their mark in Portland

Part way into their set, The Deer Tracks reminded me of what a pushover I am for music from their (self-declared) small country of Sweden.

As the combination of musical proficiency, drama (both sonically, as well as visually) and variety of instrumentation drew the audience (yours truly included) in, other admirable Swedish artists came to mind: the eclecticism of Karin Dreijer Andersson (Fever Ray, The Knife), the bombast and epic-ness of MEW, and the crisp percussiveness of Jose Gonzalez’ Junip.

After solid sets from Like a Villain (described by one person as “Alabama Shakes meets Tuneyards”), and Billygoats (catchy, adventurous  electronic/folk/pop), The Deer Tracks – the brainchild/project of vocalist/multi-instrumentalists Elin Lindfors and David Lehnberg – expertly performed music from their brief, but sonically wide-ranging, catalog, it became clear that these were earnest musicians with a vision. Considering that Portland’s Mississippi Studios would be the inaugural performance in a 30 show tour that will take them around North America (with stops in Toronto and Montreal, aside from Midwest, East Coast, and SXSW), it’s clear that they have the big picture.

Joined on stage by two percussionists (an electronic drummer, as well as a drummer on a standard kit), Lindfors’ soaring, ethereal vocals and Lehnberg’s impassioned keyboards were placed front and center – providing a fleshed-out sound that truly transformed the performance space. The two jumped between their various instruments (Lindfors joked with me afterwords about the sheer volume of musical gear she had to navigate between the artists performing that night) – but managed quite expertly.

The band shared with me their origins in the north of Sweden (their bio alluding to recording in remote cabins), with an implied – yet humble – sense of pride in what has become a very diverse music scene in their country, one which is getting recognition in the States as well. I was able to share with them that I  (once asked) was not only familiar with The Tallest Man on Earth, but that I had seen two of his performances in the last couple of years. Along with the aforementioned artists, I’ve also had the privilege of seeing Little Dragon, a band that inhabits a similar musical climate of what might be called “organic electronica”.

Yes, SLP could stand for “Swedes Like Portland”.

The Deer Tracks’ latest, The Archer Trilogy, Part III, is now available in the US, and demonstrates a band that is still harnessing its raw power and dramatic sound and intensity, but finding plenty of catchy rhythms and hooky tunes along the way.

Last October’s Apples in Stereo show at Portland’s Mississippi Studios brought home two urgent points:  1) not enough bands seem to have fun playing live and 2) more bands should wear uniforms.

In a town where brooding, flannel-clad folkies vie with irony-crippled hipsters for stage space, the Apples’ unabashed spirit of pop confectionery was a welcome relief. As they took the stage, frontman Robert Schneider grinned at the crowd and said, “Cool!” as if he was genuinely amazed by the fact that people come to hear him play. It was a refrain he repeated throughout the night as Schneider led the band through a frenzied, sometimes sloppy, but always rocking set that spanned the Apples’ nearly 20-year history.

Watching the band’s six members schlep their own gear before their set, you had to conclude that they were in this because they loved it—they’re certainly not living the rich rock star lifestyle, despite having released seven albums since 1995. The band was touring in support of their new album, Travellers in Space and Time, a continuation of their ELO-inflected, keyboard-heavy sound that began to emerge on 2007’s New Magnetic Wonder.

Sporting the “new” lineup that took shape in 2006 (after Schneider and longtime drummer Hilarie Sidney got divorced), the band crammed six members onto the tiny stage, including three keyboards (!), and the indispensible vocoder featured in recent songs like “Dance Floor.” The song is silly and fluffy, and therefore brilliant in the way the Archies’ “Sugar Sugar” is brilliant—it’s 100% pure pop, with no apologies and no attempt to make a grand point.

In other words, it’s fun.

And that’s not something I can say for one of the opening bands, Fol Chen, which describes itself on its MySpace page as playing “melodramatic popular song.” (Sadly, I missed the opening set by Portland’s own The Minders.) By turns mopey and precious, the band’s 40-minute set couldn’t even be redeemed by the cool matching red uniforms they wore. Nothing like Nehru collars and epaulets to bring a band’s stage presence up a notch, I have to say. I won’t be getting their album, but if I could find one of those jackets, I’d buy one.

And while we’re on point number 2 (i.e., the benefits of band uniforms), I should mention that the Apples came on stage wearing matching sparkly silver uniforms. Schneider, whose outfit was more like a long silver robe than the jackets worn by his bandmates, announced “We’re the Apples in Stereo, and we’re from the future.” (Because what else says “future” like sparkly silver? Except maybe vocoders.) Again, there was no real point to it, but it was pretty fun.

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