With the Clip of an I.V. Drip

I've had the most recent EP from Swedish band Suburban Kids With Biblical Names in my posession for just under a week and a half now. I'm fairly certain that within that relatively short time span I've listened to the for songs contained on that EP more than I've listened to anything else all year. There is even a pretty good chance that I've listened to each one of these songs more times than probably half of the songs that were on my top twenty list from last year.

While I was driving to work the other day (listening to #4 for what was probably the 75th time) my mind began to wander, and it was to my horror that I could no longer remember any of the words to the song that Suburban Kids With Biblical Names took their band name from. The song is "People," and the band that wrote that song is Silver Jews, and when I discovered SKWBN I was probably most inclined to listen to them based on that title. I'm pretty certain that the obsession with American Water (the album that contains that song) that I was coincidentally so deep into at the time of the American release of the SKWBN record that put them on my radar was actually due to repeat listens to "People," and then letting the brilliance of the rest of the record inevitably unfold around me. Needless to say, I used to know every word of that song. When I tried to remember this past Friday I could not get any further than "Moments can be monuments to you." I've pieced together most of the song from memory (which was way more fun than reading the lyrics online), and once I have my computer back then I will likely be spending a few days with American Water, and absolutely nothing else on my headphones. In the meantime, it's given me a nice topic to explore for my next "Not Quite Punk" column on Web in Front.

I'll also be typing many more glowing words of praise about Suburban Kids With Biblical Names when I finally publish my top ten highlights from New York and San Francisco Popfests. They were my number one highlight at both festivals. For now though, I really just wanted an excuse to share this video for one of the songs on the new EP, "Europa." I do greatly wish that there was a video for "1999" which in my mind is THE dance party single for the summer of 2009. Whether or not the rest of the world catches on sadly remains to be seen. "Europa" is quite interesting though. It's probably the most melodic, and reflective song on the EP, and it contains one of my favorite examples of word play to date: "You said that you wanted some more bass and drum machine in your mon-i-tor (No money, no tour...)" And it's lines like that make me realize that while sonically they are in quite a different part of the pop music spectrum than the space within that spectrum that's inhabitted by Silver Jews, David Berman's dry wit has likely had more of an influence on this band than merely their name.



It appears that you can (and should) purchase the #4 EP as an MP3 download here.

You'd also be smart to pick up a copy of the band's sole full length #3 if you don't already own that record. You can do that here

Suburban Kids With Biblical Names - Europa from Bo Mikael Hall on Vimeo.