This Is Your Song For...February 24th, 2013: Olivia by The Mainliners

They're looking Mick Jagger, but feeling Ray Davies...

This week...Swedish Garage Pop!

Yes, there is Garage Pop, and it is in Stockholm, Sweden.  The Mainliners wear their influences on their sleeves--there's some MC5 in here, some Kinks, some Rolling Stones--and it's not hard to envision them side by side with fellow countrymen The Hives as a double bill.  Of course, The Hives, as fun as they are, never had amazingly sweet piano breaks in their songs like this one had, nor did they layer in what seems to be a radio call in their song like they did with this one.

But here's the thing about this song, from their 2007 self-titled album...even though the garage rock sensibilities are very evident, they can't help but be popsters.  Even with the Mick Jaggerism that lead singer Robert Billing forces onto this song about love-through-hardship, even with the hardcore guitar riffs and the martial drum beat, The Mainliners can't help but generate a decidedly melodic piece of rock that, quite frankly, would not seem out of place in an arena rock band's set--and that's not meant as a slam in any way.  And they do it without losing the energy that makes The Hives so much fun; it's just that the energy becomes transformed, being just as propulsive but more nuanced.  The Mainliners' music is just as fun, but more contemplative and majestic.

I have to assume that The Mainliners have broken up, as their last album was in 2009.  If that's not the case, I hope someone corrects me, because I want to hear more.

Here's the song....

30 Songs, 30 Days, Day Seventeen (2010 Edition): Well All Right! by The Hives

It's rather amusing that, not long after I discussed Joe Jackson, who frequently skipped across genres to amuse himself, I end up with this example of the Garage Revival of the early 00's...

And of the Garage Revival bands, I rather like these guys best of all because they don't seem to have the winking irony of some of their contemporaries like Franz Ferdinand. This is from The Black and White Album, their most recent album, and I rather like it because--well, it sounds more than a little bit like some long lost descendant of the kind of old school jive and blues Jackson was essaying for his album Jumping Jive (discussed briefly in this entry for this year's cycle. The drum line, the call-and-response chorus, even the momentary time change all seem to be designed to get you and your gal up and jitterbugging. And when Howlin' Pelle Almqvist....well, howls at roughly the two minute mark, it's just a great moment. This is the kind of song that, with some regression, could have been blared out on the dancefloor during the Roaring Twenties, which might be another reason I like it so much. All of their work is like this--thoroughly unpretentious and not trying to assure us it's all a big put-on.

Okay, so lyrically we're not talking much--it's at its most basic a celebration of the loser, of endeavoring to accept all the setbacks life throws at you with some semblance of cool. And thanks to the energy throughout (except for that minute-forty-five time change that ends in that two-minute mark howl I was talking about) and it's adherence to the three minute rule, it acts as an antidote to all the emo-sad-puppy stuff that clogs the airwaves. We're all losers in some way, Pelle assures us...so let's dance!

No video...but here's the track itself for you to enjoy...and enjoy you will.