Teddybears

Stockholm-based collective Teddybears will release their U.S. debut, Soft Machine, September 12th on Big Beat Recordings. The album, a mash up of styles touching on garage punk beats, Electro, Dancehall and Krautrock, features a diverse array of guest vocalists, including Iggy Pop. Neneh Cherry, Elephant Man, Annie, Ebbot Lundberg of Soundtrack of Our Lives and Mad Cobra.

While new to the U.S., Teddybears have put out a handful of albums in their native Sweden, beginning in the '90s as a hardcore punk band, citing as influences the Dead Kennedys, Bad Brains and NWA. Classmates Patrik and Jocke met at an art school in Stockholm where they decided to form a grindcore band named Skull. When Skull needed a guitar player, they invited Jocke's brother Klas and changed the band's name to Teddybears.

Bassist Jocke recalls, "After a while our drummer left the band to pursue a career as a sculptor, and so we learned that cheap drum machines, electric guitars and vocoders could be a deadly combination."

"With the change of the music, though, we started to incorporate other kinds of vocals, and we have invited some very special friends as guest vocalists."

"Nowadays, there's not a lot of punk in our music anymore I guess," Jocke continues. "We get some outlet for that kind of frustration in other areas of our lives, like painting, skateboarding and Nietzsche-reading."

Notable for their eclectic musical style as much as for wearing large bear heads, Teddybears were formed in Sweden in the early '90s. Although the group -- whose members also direct videos, short films, and commercials -- takes on a variety of genres including electronic, dance, rock, and reggae, Teddybears' original incarnation was as a grindcore band. Members Patrik Arve and Joakim Åhlund (who is also guitarist for the Caesars) had met in art school in Stockholm, soon adding Åhlund's brother Klas on guitar. As a defiance against typical grindcore band names, the group switched its first name Skull to Teddybears, named after a band from the 1950s featuring Phil Spector. After Teddybears' drummer left and having issued two albums, the other members found dependence on drum machines, guitars, and vocoders. The result was the electronic-leaning Rock 'n' Roll Highschool in 2000, followed by Fresh in 2005. Signing on with Atlantic, the band's first U.S. release, Soft Machine, came out in September 2006 and featured guests Iggy Pop, Annie, Neneh Cherry, Mad Cobra, and Ebbot Lundberg of the Soundtrack of Our Lives. ~ Kenyon Hopkin, All Music Guide