I went to see the new Lucas Moodysson movie today. Lucas is Swedish, like the Hellacopters and Supershit 666. Also like Ingmar Bergman and Lars Van Trier. Moodysson’s new movie is called We Are the Best! and it is set in 1982. Based on what I assume is an autobiographical graphic novel by his wife, Coco Moodysson, it tells the story of a couple of disaffected 13 year olds who recruit a disaffected Christian guitar player and start a punk band.
Moodyson is one of my favorite directors. His films have mostly centered on teenagers, mostly involved with music, yet the tone and attitude has ranged widely. He can be light, dark or experimental, all with dexterity and energy. But that’s a subject for a different time, in a story about Lucas Moodysson.
We Are the Best’s girls start a punk band in Stockholm in 1982, when everyone is telling them that punk is dead, because they have nothing else to do, but that’s just a talking point. It’s a wonderfully acted story of friendship and music and acting on impulse. And it turns wonderfully on their ambition turning to fruition, even though the music isn’t, um, quite there yet.
One of the running gags in the film is which Swedish punk band everyone likes best. Bobo, the lead character, like Ebba Grön, and is challenged when her friend switches her allegiance to, um, a different band. One with four letters as their name. I’ll dig for that, but for now enjoy this (and see We Are the Best!).
1) Supershit is not entirely Swedish.
2) I’m not sure what’s going on here. Is this a real band or a movie band? In any case, it sounds like a band trying to do its best impression of the early Clash.
They are a real band, formed in 1977 in Stockhholm. We’re only in it for the drugs came out in 1978. They did a cover of White Riot, the Clash influence is obvious and huge, but also covered Steppenwolf’s Born to be Wild.
Their third album came out in 1982, and they moved away from the punk sound. They covered the Stones’ Happy for that one, but the Youtube clip won’t play.
But this one is their most famous song, released in 1980. It wouldn’t sound out of place on the Clash’s “Give ‘Em Enough Rope” (which was released in November 1978).
http://youtu.be/P5vvrUrBuQQ
Holy fucking shit!!! I immediately went searching for a Turbonegro cover from “Small Feces” that reminded me a lot of this song (of course, I never knew the name of the song). Well, here it is. Small World, Small Feces.
http://youtu.be/uBk7WPmrmD4
To round out the story, the Ebba Gron version which Turbonegro covers is a cover of a Swedish progressive rock song.
http://youtu.be/sTAvm_Fk09M
The last line of the Ebba Gron Wikipedia page:
n 2003, shortly after the death of Joe Strummer, Mick Jones (guitarist of The Clash) traveled to Sweden to play a tribute for the recently deceased musician with Ebba Grön.
The two guys to the left on the Staten pic even look like Topper Headon and Paul Simonen.
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