1 MISS UNIVERSUM
Scene & Unheard
Issue #28
Sweden
By Beth Capper, Jennifer Sabella & Amber Drea
Published: June 1st, 2006 | 12:00am
MISS UNIVERSUM
LABEL: NONS Records
PLAYERS:
Catti Brandelius (vocals), Henrik Svensson a.k.a. Mr. Dick (guitar),
Fina Sundqvist a.k.a. Mr. Jönköping (backing vocals, dance, keyboard),
Lisa Partby a.k.a. Miss Kebab (backing vocals, dance, drums, sampler,
other instruments)
INFLUENCES: artists Laurie
Anderson, Tracey Emin, Yoko Ono, and Sophie Calle; musicians Le Tigre,
Iggy Pop, and Cindy Lauper; writers Selma Lagerlöf and Ellen Key; “my
friends and my son”
SOUNDS LIKE: Devo, the Cars,
and Thomas Dolby, if they had sex changes, became feminists, and sang
about “super-big” vaginas, shopaholics, fertilization, and being a wife
and mother.
THE LOWDOWN: Brandelius is a
multi-media artist who uses stand-up comedy, poetry, tap dance, video,
and music in her performances. She’s currently recording a
Swedish-language album for her new, more serious persona, Profesora,
who teaches about the women’s rights movement.
URL: missuniversum.nu
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FRIDA HYVÖNEN
LABEL: Licking Fingers
PLAYERS: Frida Hyvönen (vocals, piano)
INFLUENCES: Agnes Martin, Nina Simone
SOUNDS LIKE: Pretty, off-color piano-based pop, more like Laura Nyro than Tori Amos, but really a style all her own. Her lyrics are beautiful and dark, so listen closely.
THE LOWDOWN: Although Hyvönen says she’s been playing music “increasingly since [she] was born,” her first record, Until Death Comes, has yet to be released worldwide but is on its way. In Europe, however, Hyvönen has quite a following and is currently the only artist on Licking Fingers other than famous Swedish band the Concretes. She’s currently in the process of writing songs for a follow-up album.
URL: fridahyvonen.com
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JENNY WILSON
LABEL: Rabid Records
PLAYERS: Jenny Wilson (vocals, guitar, vibraphone); accompanied by sister Sara Wilson during live performances
INFLUENCES:
Empirical: “Nosebleeds, love, fights, despair, schoolyard blues, and,
of course, sex!” Musical: “Laurie Anderson, Patti Smith.”
SOUNDS LIKE:
Foreboding pop songs, ingeniously simplistic in their delivery; a
cunning combination of deliciously wistful, lyrical stories, propulsive
drums, and upbeat guitar lines.
THE LOWDOWN:
Formally the lead singer for Swedish indie-pop band First Floor Power,
Jenny Wilson went solo in 2005 with her debut full-length, Love And Youth,
which she wrote, produced, and engineered. Wilson’s collaboration with
fellow Swedes the Knife on the single “You Take My Breath Away”
impelled the band to make her album the first release on its label,
Rabid.
URL: jennywilson.net
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