As I seem to note every year about this time, my “Best of” lists tend to suggest their own themes, and 2k2, despite some truly outstanding efforts from the US, UK, and the Commonwealth of Canadia, was clearly the year of the Swedish Invasion. Three bands from the Kingdom of Sverige – The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Kent, and The Hellacopters – cracked the Pit’s top ten this year, and if I’d ever gotten around to picking up the latest from Skelleftea’s own Wannadies, I wonder if there might not have been four.
All of which raises an obvious question – how is it that a nation famous mostly for eight-month winters, a nonexistent bikini team, and Peter Forsberg is able to take our popular music forms and produce better stuff than our own artists? Hmmph. Well, I could probably go on for days there, but I shan’t. Let’s just leave it at this: Sweden is lately home to a spectacular popular music culture, and in 2002 our Nordic brethren really showed us how it’s done.
As always, I bought about a tenth of what I wish I had been able to afford, and apologize profusely to all the worthy bands who might have been mentioned here had I only time enough and a budget.
1: Space Team Electra – Intergalactic Torch Song Read more
The results of last week’s Name Those Bands contest are in. In first place we have … a disqualification, sorta. Our friend Ubertramp logged in with an impressive 47 of 53. Seriously, that’s pretty damned good. But he has disqualified himself because I’m the one who turned him onto most of these outstanding artists and he felt like he might as well be cheating under the circumstances.
We went to see 
Here’s how the blurb at CD Baby puts it:
lullaby pit 