Norway has long, unremitting winters with no sunshine, leaving the four lads who make up 120 Days with a lot of time on their hands. This quartet used their time wisely by making music, taking drugs and probably listening to a lot of old Kraftwerk, New Order and Cure records. With three battered keyboards and an old drum machine, the band creates a gloomy, tooth grinding, sinister wall of noise perfect for all-night raves on the dark side of the moon. Like the '80s dance bands and '70s Krautrock groups they obviously admire, they've found a way to make their regimented drum tracks swing, adding layers of thick fuzzy guitar noise and gasping, heart attack bass to provide some ock credibility. Ĺdne Meisfjord's desperate shrieks of anguish bring to mind Robert Smith's caterwauling at its most frenzied, but good luck understanding the lyrics, which are presumably in English. The vocals are buried deep in the mix, but their incomprehensible shriek exudes a kind of bracing, desperate beauty. 120 Days still lean pretty heavily on their influences: "Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone" sounds like Kraftwerk sitting in with Joy Division, "Sleepwalking" is pure Cure and "Keep on Smiling" could be a sexier, more menacing version of Depeche Mode, but their ominous squall is delivered with a frenzied energy that makes their relentless drone promising. [120 Days was also released with a bonus track, "Fadeout."]
REEEEAAALLLY quick: just check these guys out. They've got a darker, "Thomas Dolby-'SCIENCE!"" (er, on account of the electro-organ?) pop sound to them; the singer sounds like Chris Martin of 'Coldplay' fame, and some Bowie, who they confess is one of their influences. They may have a dance-worthy back-beat, these guys are not likely to ever end up in the "POP" section of your local K-Mart...12...
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OK, so actually there are much less than 120 days until Coachella, but it gives me a pretense to introduce to you a band that will be playing Saturday, 120 Days.From allmusic:Norwegian teenaged friends Jonas Dahl, Arne Kvalvik, Kjetil Ovesen, and Ådne Meisfjord originally formed 120 Days under the guise of "Beautiful People" in the autumn of 2001. Relocating to Oslo, the group developed their s..
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Half the fun for me in going to Coachella is diving into the 50 or so bands I have never heard of until the lineup was announced. On a quest like this you will always find stuff you really, really don't ever want to hear again, and some stuff that you will end up taking with you long after the festival is a drunken, hazy memory.I am going to say that 120 Days fall into the latter category. No, ...
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This song and video from 120 Days has the hook. Sounds like Coldplay on adrenaline. Keep rockin Norway dudes.
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REEEEAAALLLY quick: just check these guys out. They've got a darker, "Thomas Dolby-'SCIENCE!"" (er, on account of the electro-organ?) pop sound to them; the singer sounds like Chris Martin of 'Coldplay' fame, and some Bowie, who they confess is one of their influences. They may have a dance-worthy back-beat, these guys are not likely to ever end up in the "POP" section of your local K-Mart...12...
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V cool video from a band out of Norway. Love the b/w photography and heavy keyboard sound. Lots of big outdoor gigs this last year in US and Europe put these guys in the mainstream... photo: courtesy of Melbourne Urban Collection; V.Gardiner
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| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
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| 1 Come Out, Come Down, Fade Out, Be Gone |
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| 2 Be Mine |
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| 3 C-Musik |
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| 4 Sleepwalking |
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| 5 Get Away |
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| 6 Keep on Smiling |
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| 7 Lazy Eyes |
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| 8 Sleepless Nights #3 |
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| 9 I've Lost My Vision |
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 "120 Days")
