The Salty Pirates from Halmstad, Sweden. Also active during those early 2000s. Good band. Whatever happened to them?

It was the days of CDRs and so they released their music that way.

Discogs has listed one release, “We Thank the Lord Each Day for the Apocalypse”, which was self-released with 6 songs, “Did You Ever Feel Like Fucking Up?”, “The Alien Invasion”, “Black Minds, White Lies”, “My Academic Beard”, “I Lost My Virginity to the Sound of Per Gessle” and “Skogspromenad”. The only detail about this release is that it came out in 2004, on an Imation CDR (remember those?). On the back of the sleeve we see a website for the band which these days doesnt exist anymore, today it is actually own by a company in Florida that does Painting and Renovations and also called Salty Pirates.

Then I track down another release, this time from 2003, called “Make Bombs Not Popsongs”. This one had four songs, “You Got Your Seatbelt and Cars are so Safe”, “Somethings Beautiful are Ugly”, “Fire Deathstar, Fire” and “All That Glitters Can Be Gold”. This EP was produced by Mathias Söderlund and mastered by Klas Holm during the summer of 2003. You could download the EP from their website back then.

I also learn that the band’s original name was Happy Tom. Then they changed to Salty Pirates. They would eventually change their name again, in 2008 they became The Weather in Sweden.

I keep searching.

On Youtube I find a track called “Common Sense” that my friend David has uploaded. It seems to come from a release called “Back with a Vengeance”, it has a date of 2007.

I see a post by Jerry Boman dating from 2005, where he reviews a gig of them at a club called “Thursday I’m in Love” at the Respekt club in Göteborg (I think).

I also think they played Emmaboda at some point. What else? They seem to be a five-piece band.

Other than that not much info. Anyone remembers them

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Listen
Salty Pirates – You Got Your Seatbelt and Cars Are So Safe

Everyday Sensations! Remember them? You might, they were on the fantastic label My Secret Garden Recordings. And what’s more they had a reissue of their 2005 “Forget Those Teardrops” EP a few years back, in 2022.

The EP as mentioned was released back in 2005 as a CDR with catalog number GARDEN015. IT included four top songs, “Call it What You Want”, “Things We Never Had”, “Sheets and Blankets” and “Helen Love”. Who can not a like a band that dedicates a song to Helen Love? Yeah, I wonder that too. I do have to say though that my favourite track is the second one, “Things We Never Had”.

The EP was re-released many years later, 17 years, in a very limited CDR run of 100 copies. With different artwork but the same tracklist.

Because of this and the label’s effort to make available their catalog the EP is on Bandcamp. We learn that the new artwork was made by Martin Sernestrand, the label boss, using imagery from Charlotte Wahlström. We also learn that the songs were produced by Markus Bergström Björn who is also the person behind the songs, lyrics and music.

There are some unreleased tracks. I see our friend David Chalé has uploaded to Youtube the track “When Summer Falls We’ll Forget It“. What is even cooler is that I see a line in the description of the video that I had written back in 2005!! Wow, I had no clue, didn’t even remember I had reviewed the band. I mention that Markus was a boy in love with pop music that with a computer, an old keyboard, a second-hand guitar and a microphone has figured out how to create pretty and catchy songs. And that is not the only song David has shared with us, he also has “Action Action Go!” this time from an EP titled “Boxing Days” which I am not aware of. Seems it was released in 2006. I’ll have to find out more!

From what I see the EP had five tracks, including a cover version of “Holiday Road” by Lindsey Buckingham.

Another interesting detail I’ve found is that the Swedish band Twinkling Streams covered “Things We Never Had”.

What else? I see that Markus djed at Club King Kong in Stockholm back in 2010.

Rateyourmusic has other releases. And also lists another name as part of the band, Nicholas. One is the 2007 EP “ES Crew” that had the songs “No Applause (Feat. Jonathan HHH)”, “You Won’t See Me Hide, You Won’t See Me Run”, “Puerto Plata” and “Listening to the Fall (Feat. Kim & Kris)”.  The other release is a digital single with 3 songs released in 2009 that had “1 Step 2 Steps”, “Who Put the Heart in You” and “Helen Love”.

I wonder about these releases. I totally missed them at the time. Would love to listen to these tracks.

Keep looking for information. I find that Markus was in a band called Sthlmians with Jonathan Johansson around 2018 and released a track called “Jacqueline”. So perhaps he is still involved with music these days.

And that’s it! That’s what I could find about this great project. So glad I ended up writing about Everyday Sensations today, took me through memory lane, such nostalgia for those music days of the 2000s.

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Listen
Everyday Sensations – Things We Never Had

Shine on and keep the faith, were the last words my friend Andreas Hering wrote to me about a month ago. I learned this past week that he passed away a couple of Mondays ago due to a car crash on a country road. I still can’t believe it. I’m so sad and shocked by it that I’ve taken some time to even grasp what this means to me. 

About the time I started writing on my blog I wrote about Andreas. I dedicated a post to him called “Andreas von Hamburg“. At that time I didn’t know him that much but made a big impression. His kindness and indiepop knowledge was hard to compare.

During the years I would see him at different music festivals and concerts. Indietracks was definitely a time when we used to hang out the most. I remember him with a glass of wine whereas everyone else had their warm beer.

I would also visit him in Hamburg, where he moved in 1999 I believe, drinking Jever or Astra and always having the best of conversations. And then the last time I saw him in 2014. That year I saw him in two different cities, first in Berlin when we both went to the Throw That Beat in the Garbagecan! reunion gig and later when I visited Hamburg. I tried the labskaus for the first time at a restaurant he picked for me.

And since I know him we’ve emailed. Even in the last 10 years when we didn’t see each other in person we kept in touch, emailing, talking about music and life. He was always interested and curious, asking the questions of someone who cares. Also I must say that in the last couple of years he was the only person I continued talking about indiepop. He was still very much connected to what was going on. I was the opposite, the last few years I have very little time to find new bands, buy new records. I’ve lost a bit of that drive. Andreas kept me updated, with links and his incombustible excitement.

I have lost that. And I have lost a friend. And I feel very sad about not having seen him last time I was in Hamburg in 2023, which was a last minute trip and for a few hours. It was a badly planned trip, all last minute. So didn’t get the chance to organize anything. I always thought I was going to return any day, my mum lives an hour northeast of Hamburg, and see Andreas. I can’t believe I won’t. That this is not happening.

I remember lazy afternoons at his place. Always with friends and drinks. The music that was being played was always exquisite. He had the best records. Records I wish I had like those rare Sea Urchins records on Sarah. He also had a great C86 era cassette compilations collection. He even made one of them, the great “Everlasting Happiness” tape (one that introduced me to the fantastic Shine! who I would later release).

Speaking of releases, he was always suggesting me to do this and that. He had great ideas. How I wish I could have made any of those happen like The James Dean Driving Experience of The Pumpkin Fairies. He supported Cloudberry and always enjoyed very much the retrospective releases.

But yeah, those lazy afternoons at his place, usually the day after a gig. The cases of beer by the entrance door. The bedroom on the 2nd floor where he let me crash. And all the friends, a perfect sense of camaraderie.

He was always a champion for indiepop. I wish he organized more festivals. The one he did, the Hamburg Pop Weekender, I couldn’t attend. But it was a flawless lineup. And from what I learned, it was a success. I still have many posters of that festival and other gigs under the names of Three Cheers for Our Side or Adventure Playground that he organized in his city.

I read on a little piece our friend Marco wrote about him something that rings very true. That if you were to see Andreas at the gig you knew the band was good. He had excellent taste and his mere presence was some sort of thermometer of any band, old or up-and-coming was one to not miss. He had excellent music taste.

He was always kind as I said. He was always sharing his music discoveries, and even the rare music he owned. I have CDRs here and there with amazing tracks by Grab Grab the Haddock and even a live gig of Nine Steps To Ugly. He had friends everywhere, and I’m sure his passing touches so many of us. He was particularly fond of his Glasgow days when he was younger and hanged out with the Belle & Sebastian gang, he would always reminisce about that time. He was also very close to the Liechtenstein/Fraction Discs gang in Gothenburg, who he had booked for gigs and made a fantastic friendship that lasts. And so on, and on. He was a bright light in the scene. Always being able to make us all comfortable and happy.

At Indietracks he would rent a car. That was quite unheard for me. Of course it was mainly to get from London to Alfreton, get snacks and drink at Tescos, maybe have lunch around the area, and get to the hotel. Still having a car for me was rare, all of us traveling on a train. A few years ago he got himself a car, not a brand new one, but a vintage, collectible car. He was so proud of it. I first thought he had rented it too. But no, it was his, and it looked wonderful. Out of a classic movie in technicolor.

I’m sorry if my ideas are all over the place and I jump back and forward. I struggle to understand what’s happened. And I miss Andreas. His last email also offered a longer reply to our last communication. That is not going to happen. He asked me to get in touch with Dave Musker from the TVPs and offer him an interview for the blog. He also did that, I was forgetting, he put me in touch with many of his friends in the indiepop world. He was an avid reader of this blog, and now and then left me a comment. It made me happy.

I have assumed that non of my friends read this blog. For me Andreas was the exception. He made it cleared he cared.

Originally from Worms, a town I told him many times I was to visit someday, Andreas was a lawyer for environmental law, his offices in downtown Hamburg. Before that was even cool. He wanted to help all the time. I remember once he even wanted to figure out with Sarah Records if it was possible releasing The Rosaries, The Golden Dawn or Christine’s Cat. So far only the latter has had a reissue not too long ago.

His emails full of references were always a delight to read. Songs and phrases from songs were intermingled with his messages. Examples? I like this one “Have I mentioned that I can’t stand “Pop Star Prat[s]” (Thrilled Skinny)?” And indiepop erudite for sure. And that translated when we met and chatted. Those long nights at the table at the Travelodge in Alfreton after a full day at Indietracks. Everyone chatting and drinking and always him calm, with the right joke at the right moment.

He became a father 10 years ago, I became one 4 years ago. We chatted about this too. We shared recommendations on how to bring up a kid. We shared photos. It was always good to know the new things his son was learning and liking. I was truly impressed with the music taste, he really seem to enjoy good music! Earlier this year Andreas was telling me his son’s favourite album was “Loveless” by My Bloody Valentine. Can you believe it? I’m sure he was so proud of it.

I am not sure how to go forward with this post. I’m going in circles. The fact is that I can’t understand what has happened and my friend is not around. Our love for music made us know each other, but we shared more stuff through the years than music, even with this big distance that divide two continents. I know a funeral will happen sometime soon and Nannette Römer, my good friend, is the person to get in touch with if you want to find more and how to attend.

I will always remember you my friend.

The rain it raineth on the just
And also on the unjust fella
But more upon the just because
The unjust steals the just’s umbrella
(Charles Baron Bowen)

As mentioned, I’m going through a Swedish indiepop phase. Remembering the days when I fell in love with that country, the bands, the music, the people. Good times.

Maybe many remember We Are Soldiers We Have Guns, Malin Dahlberg’s alter-ego. It was a good band who released a bunch of records. The music of the band could be indiepop but other times was a bit more experimental, more sparse.

We are Soldiers We Have Guns started in 2004 with a self-titled CDR EP on Yellow Mica Recordings (YMR 006), the label of our friends Martin Cannert and Christoffer Lärkner. That EP with that iconic drawing of a girl bleeding from a gun wound on the back had four songs, “Damn Those TV-Shows Damn Them Straight To Hell”, “My Hero”, “Jodi’s Noise” and “Psalm 190”.

The next year, 2005, there was a CDR that I believe was self-released. It was titled “Soldaterna #2” and had the tracks “Tourists in Our Hometown” and “The Ego is a Tricky Business”.

After that the band signs to Stereo Test Kit Records in the UK that was releasing some of Labrador Records music there like Club 8 or Laurel Music. With them Malin releases the band’s first min-album, also self-titled (STK CD008). The songs on this record are “Tourist in Our Hometown”, “Redefine”, “Damn Those TV Shows; Damn Them Straight to Hell”, “On Hold” and “Jodi’s Noise”. These were new recordings done at Min Vilja Är Folkets Studio in Mellanbygden, Västerbotten, and mastered by Mats Hammarström (from Isolation Years, do you remember them?) at Second Home Studio in Umeå.

On this record Malin who sang, played guitar, piano and organ, got some more people to help. Lovisa Nyström (from Two White Horses) played cello and Robert Tenevall (from Horseface, Knugen Faller, Royal Downfall and Totalt Jävla Mörker) played guitar. Jon Brännström, previously of the band Purusam and owner of the recording studio, was the producer and also played accordion.

2006 sees the band release “To Meet is Murder” on Stereo Test Kit (STK CD012). Again a mini-album or EP of 5 songs. These were “In the Morning We’re OK”, “The Line is a Dot to You” (which has a great video, check it out), “The Trick is to Love”, “Konservatism” and “Songs that No One Will Hear”. This time the record was mastered at Studio Folkhemmet by Petter Ericsson. The artwork was done by Emma Mierse and other than Malin Dahlberg, we see music playing credits for Jocke Rosén.

In 2007 We Are Soldiers We Have Guns releases their only vinyl release, a 7″ single on our friend Andreas from Celestial label Lavender Recordings (LAV7001). This beautiful single had two covers, “Wild World” by Cat Stevens on the A side and “Wherever I Lay My Hat (That’s My Home)” by Marvin Gaye on the B side.

Then we jump to 2008. This is the proper We are Soldiers We Have Guns album. It was called “Get Up, Get Out” and is actually on Bandcamp so you can listen to it in its entirety. It came out on CD on Stereo Test Kit Records (STK CD019) and had the tracks “Better Days/More Alive”, “Me Vs Time = Fixed Game”, “Rain, Heart, Scars”, “The Great Depression” (which has a top video made by Andreas Andersson and shot on 8mm in Gothenburg), “November”, “Create Your Own Psychosis!”, “Nina”, “Speak Up, Speak Out”, “Power” and “What Your Sister Said”.

The album was recorded at Folkhemmet and we see some more musicians involved in the album this time. Ramo Spatalovic (from Douglas Heart, Franke, Shipyard, The Greencoats and Melody Fields) played bass on “Power”, drums on “Me Vs Time = Fixed Game”, “November” and “Create Your Own Psychosis!” and guitar on “The Great Depression”.

Susanna Brandin (from Winter Took His Life, Hunt, Rome is not a Town and Unikorus) played bass too on “The Great Depression”, “Nina” and “Speak Up, Speak Out”. Max Sjöholm (from Douglas Heart and Sambassadeur) played drums on “The Great Depression, “Nina” and “Speak Out, Speak Up”. Ulf Wederbrandt (from The Jam of the Year) played drums on “Rain, Heart, Scars” and piano on “Me Vs Time = Fixed Game”. Ulf was also the producer of the record.

The artwork is credited to Valero Doval, a Spanish designer.

And of course you noticed all the Douglas Heart’s connections, and it is true, Malin was also in Douglas Heart (and I wrote about them many years ago), as well as in Shipyard and Laurel Music.

When it comes to compilations the band appeared on a few. In 2005 the song “The Ego is a Tricky Business” was on Cosy Recordings CDR comp “Cosy Den Goes Lägenhet Ett År” (Cosy 001). Tht same year we see “Tourists in Our Hometown” on “Records Make Great Pets Vol. 1/Sweden” released by Stereo Kit Records (STK CD005) and the song “Anchorless” on Yellow Mica’s CDR compilation “Our Hearts Beat Out of Tune” (YMR021). Then in 2008 the song “Olis” was included in “Björn Kleinhenz – Quietly Happy and Deep Inside ‘Covers and Remixes'” released digitally as an MP3 compilation by IAT.Mp3.

Then there is another release on Discogs which I am not sure what it is. It says “The Fool on the Hill” which is a Beatles’ song and it seems We Are Soldiers We Have Guns covered it, I think just as an MP3.

Another interesting bit to share is that there is a live session on a tram, dating from 2009. We see the snowy city through the windows and we notice too that Malin is joined by two friends, not sure who they are though. It looks like these tram sessions were organized and recorded by Tom Jerry Boman at the time.

I find an interview with Malin dating from 2009 on a blog called The Ampeater Review. It is mentioned that there are 3 videos. So far I’ve only found 2 on Youtube. Which one was the third? Malin also talks about her influences including Delta 5, The Au-Pairs and The Go-Go’s.

Another interesting bit is that it seems she was recording something in Brooklyn at the time. I wonder what. Anyone knows?

And then what happened to Malin? What is she doing these days? Still involved with music? Was she ever in other bands after We Are Soldiers We Have Guns? Did she play live much? I couldn’t find much info on that field.

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Listen
We Have Soldiers We Have Guns – Electricity