I’m imagining a scene: it’s years and years ago, and it’s Gothenburg Sweden. On one side of the street, the boys of Hemstad are growing up, blasting their punk rock records, air-skronking on tennis-racket guitars, and sneaking into the basement to sip Grandpa’s whisky. On the other side of the street is a nice, proper little house, and inside that house were some well-mannered, bookish, and quiet young boys faithfully practicing their music lessons. We know what happened to Hemstad, but what ever happened to those good boys from across the street? Apparently, they formed a band called Detektivbyrån, and they seem to be the perfect thing for if you’re making a mixtape and you need to segue from Hemstad to Beirut. It’s sort of like if you were imprisoned in a tiny snowglobe by a crotchety old Eastern European wizard, and discovered there was a street band trapped in that tiny city with you, and hell, they’re not half-bad!

::: Detektivbyrån – 01 :::

*Both* Hemstad and Detektivbyrån are playing the Emmaboda Festival tomorrow, in southern Sweden, along with Jose Gonzales, Band Of Horses, Camera Obscura, the Pipettes, and many, many other great bands.

And while we’re on the subject of festivals, since when are there exactly 9 billion “indie” music festivals going on at any given time in the US? I mean, don’t get me wrong, it sounds great: record heat, huge crowds of hipsters, $5 bottles of water… Okay, I confess: I really don’t understand the appeal, but apparently, that’s just me. Next year, I propose consolidation. ‘Cause I would *totally* lift my festival-ban for AustincitybonnalollapygdesdemidwestquatchMJsirenforktonationbysouthwestfest.