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| Lazy Bones |
Reference to "Shine A Light" in the 7th paragraph.
Tangled Up in Blue
The soundtrack of our sad lives
by Sorina Diaconescu
The only song that made me cry this
year was a cover of the Stooges� �No
Fun.� There�s something cruel about
stripping the classic rock song of its
menace and symbolism � this was,
remember, the last tune the Sex
Pistols mangled together onstage
before imploding in �78 � and killing it
softly, only to resurrect it anew as a
small and beautiful ballad. And there�s
something sweet in that this act of
heresy is accomplished with only a
piano, a harmonica, and gravelly
vocals by two Swedish guys, Martin
Hederos and Mattias Hellberg, who
during the past three years have put
out two records and an EP reworking
the saddest songs Bob Dylan, Lou Reed and the Rolling Stones ever
wrote.
In the U.S. the duo are obscure but embraced by a small coterie of
musicians like Brendan Benson and Ryan Adams, the latter having
handpicked Hederos & Hellberg as the opening act for his 2002 Euro tour.
The pair have already known success with some of the best outfits their
native Sweden can claim: Hederos makes the groovy organ noises that
propel the guitar-driven psych-pop of The Soundtrack of Our Lives;
Hellberg is a one-time guitarist with the hell-raisin� Hellacopters and the
equally rockin� Diamond Dogs.
So the question is, why would they take it upon themselves to turn
Dylan�s �It Ain�t Me, Babe,� the Velvet Underground�s �Pale Blue Eyes� and
Bob Marley�s �Concrete Jungle� into exquisite orgies of Scandinavian
melancholy?
�People really liked it, and we felt really good doing it,� says Hederos, the
piano-, glockenspiel- and organ-playing half of the duo. �Life can be so
stressful, and this was our little private room where we ran and played. To
allow yourself to be sentimental and soft is quite brave. We�re not the only
ones who ever did it, but we really got addicted.�
Despite acclaim in Europe, and in Sweden, where their 2000 self-titled
debut was ranked third-best record of the year by a poll of 60 local
publications, Hederos & Hellberg won�t play together for a while, or
possibly ever again. That�s because The Soundtrack of Our Lives was
scooped up last year by U.S. major Universal, with big plans to break
America well and proper. For the Soundtrack people, that has meant
�dropping everything except families� to embark upon an intense touring
blitz through the U.S. and Europe for the better part of 2003, a move that
pushed the Hederos & Hellberg project onto the back burner.
�We had regrets that we had to quit, but you can�t deal with two
international careers at the same time,� Hederos says with a little
weariness. �I�ve been waiting for 10 years to play outside Scandinavia,
and then it happened � for both bands!�
What�s ironic for him and Hellberg is also bad news for people who
appreciate pop music that�s moving on conceptual, musical and
emotional levels. The duo cover songs that common wisdom would leave
uncovered, but they pull it off in a fresh and meaningful way. There�s the
Dylan standard �You�re a Big Girl Now,� the Stones� kindhearted �Shine a
Light,� Kris Kristofferson�s bittersweet �Epitaph (Black & Blue),� all the
more guileless after the Hederos & Hellberg treatment, the tempos
slowed down, the despair rendered delicious. That there�s nothing
calculated about it owes to the outfit�s having evolved from late-night
sessions during which these two longtime friends from western
Sweden�s Karlstad got together to share a bottle of wine and try the
songs they liked on the piano.
�We started off with this jazz-punk sensibility, and we aspired to do our
parents� favorites,� says Hederos, explaining that the duo�s pared-down
piano & vocals approach was inspired by Jan Johansson, a musician
who reworked traditional Swedish folk songs into mellow jazz
arrangements in the �60s.
�The songs we pick are not obvious choices,� he says. �And that�s not
snobbery, it�s because there has to be space in the audience�s minds for
new interpretations. It�d be really hard to do something with �Blowin� in the
Wind,� �Yesterday� or �Stairway to Heaven.� People would think we�re being
ironic.�
The irony isn�t missed. Hederos plays the piano without flashy accents.
He�s a classically trained musician who banged out a lot of jazz in his
youth, and his relationship with the instrument is intimate but not
suffocating; Hellberg�s voice strains a bit, like an achy joint. The graceful
understatement of the enterprise is such that the songs � including six
original tracks � form the perfect backdrop to a day you want to spend
alone and moody, waiting for the darkness to descend. |
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ROOM aka THE FUN HOUSE] [
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