Frederik go on an hour late, I nearly pass out

Last weekend I heard a demo of Fredrik, a band from the southern tip of Sweden. What I know about Sweden, other than the word "Schmootz" and that a band from there can tap into some relatively easy cash from the government, is that a diverse lot of great bands calls it home. Armed with the knowledge that at least one of their songs is good, I took note of their show on my iCal.

We rolled into Cakeshop about 5 minutes before Fredrik's 10:00pm set to catch the very end of Macgregor Burns, a pleasant enough acoustic duo from Baltimore. We assumed Fredrik was next, but the band going on was clearly not from Sweden, no matter how weak your sense of stereotyping is. It was Cinemasophia first, who were good, but for most of the set, I was outside smoking and getting some air; Cakeshop had reached a new level of hellish heat. By the time Fredrik came on, I seemed to forget myself, and I was lulled into a happy state. I won't say too much about the music, as I find it hard to classify. It is definitely pretty and slow-moving, but I am still sort of at a loss about it. Sometimes it reminds me of Elbow, and the first track, "Black Fur" reminds me of an obscure Travis song (see download below). I have been listening to their album, NA NA NI all day, and it stands up really well. "Hei Hei" is probably my favorite. At the end of the show, satisfied but suddenly aware, I clutched and crawled out into the night, getting a fresh blast that felt arctic upon alighting.

Download their song "Black Fur" from bandweblogs.com