Single Of The Year #5 Those Dancing Days: Hitten

Interview With TDD
Album Review
From the opening chords to its final hushed breath every second of 'Hitten' is gorgeous and perfect. Sure it's twee and slightly childish but Those Dancing Days have an innocent charm that can't be faked. Channeling Belle & Sebastian through numerous Scandanavian pop bands 'Hitten' is a delicious mixture of ice cool and warm and fuzzy. It might be Something of a one hit wonder but what a song to have as your calling card.

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Those Dancing Days- 'In Our Space Hero Suits'

Those Dancing Days
‘In Our Space Hero Suits’
October 13th
Wichita
3.5/5

The term twee is one synonymous with indie bands- from its Sarah Records beginnings via Belle and Sebastian to the modern day with Los Campesinos! From the early 90’s there has been a cutesy innocent side to bands that has stood independently from the drink, drugs and rebellion- now come 2008’s entry into the twee scrapbook with Sweden’s Those Dancing Days. Their sound is very much in the twee bracket and your writer has been anticipating this album for many months. Those Dancing Days bypass trends and fadsopting instead to simply mine pop classics and cover them in a layer of melody unparalleled by any of their contemporaries. The bands singles leading up the LP have been nothing short of stellar either: ‘Hitten’, ‘Run, Run’ and ‘Home Sweet Home’ are a hat trick of wonderful Northern Soul influenced giddy pop and boded well for the album. However it seems that those songs may be Those Dancing Days finest material and a whole load of filler has been recorded to surrounded the hits.

Audaciously beginning with a trumpeted fan fare the album kicks off in a grand fashion. The parping is followed by the most single worthy song on the album ‘Falling In Fall’- it encompasses the bands two biggest assets, Linnea Jönsson soul packed voice and Cissi Efraimsson Animal-esque drums. These two facets drive ‘In Our Space Hero Suits’ and create the axis on which the album rotates. ‘Run Run’ and ‘Hitten’ are dispensed of pretty quickly, the former a whimsical tale of a lost Summers afternoon, the latter an existential deconstruction of growing up, both are wonderful fizzy gems. Sadly nothing that follows scales those highs and much of the album merely reverts to type and conformity. ‘Kids’, ‘Shuffle’ and ‘Actionman’ all pass by without incident or impact- neither good nor bad. It’s a shame as well because when ‘Those Dancing Days’ comes around (Self titled track) it’s hyper synth riffs and upbeat energy really lift proceedings and show a different side to the band.

Its important to state here that Those Dancing Days are very young (Average age 18) and have the makings for a fantastic future here. Once they fully mature into the song writers they promise to be then that is when their full potential will be achieved. Clearly dreamers and romantics Those Dancing Days time will come.

'Home Sweet Home'

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Interview- Those Dancing Days

http://www.drownedinsound.com/articles/4077312

Over the course of an EP and two subsequent singles, alongside a smattering of live performances, Sweden’s Those Dancing Days have established themselves as keen purveyors of sugary Northern Soul-esque pop. Cute, angelic, sweet- all nice words but we here at Drowned in Sound want a bit of edge. We spoke to bassist Mimmi Evrell ahead of the release of the debut LP ‘In Our Space Suits’ on October 6th to find out, amongst other things, what makes her and her band tick.

Hi Mimmi, where in the world are you right now?

I’m in Kings Cross in London, I just woke up actually- this is my first interview of the day. We’re here to do a gig on Thursday in the Camden Barfly and an in-store too which I’m really excited about.

Your album is out soon, can you tell us a bit about it? Who has influenced you on this record?

It’s coming out on the 13th of October I think. It’s quite a varied album because none of us really have the exact same taste; we all like different things and different bands. The one band who we all like, who I guess are an influence, is the Swedish band Shout Out Louds and the Strokes as well. We’ve had the chance to meet Shout Out Louds recently and they are really nice people and really fun to hang out with.

You are all relatively young (18) and female. Have you found people treating you differently because of those factors?

Not so much any more but definitely when we started. We got a lot of things like “Do you want me to write down the chords for you? Do you want me to tune your guitar for you?”. It was so frustrating. I think because we come from Sweden where a lot of band with girls in have come from we get a lot of support. We can always turn to these bands and ask for help.

You are signed to Wichita, can you tell us why you decided to give them your signature?

In Sweden we were signed with Universal alongside Peter, Bjorn and John who are on Wichita here so we got their attention that way. It’s a very good label and we are really happy to be working with them. We all love The Cribs and we got to tour with them, we didn’t know they were so popular here! We got onstage and there were all these people there to seem them, it was such a surprise but a lovely one. I really like Bloc Party too, their new album is very good. We all saw The Dodo’s a couple of weeks ago too and they really impressed us.

Which new albums are you all enjoying at the moment?

I just bought the Fleet Foxes album and I plan on buying The Last Shadow Puppets album too.

It’s not very good, not as good as Fleet Foxes anyway..

Really? I really liked the singles.

Well half of it’s excellent and the other is just a bit rubbish. Are there any new Swedish bands you’d like to recommend us?

There is one band I have heard a bit of called The First Big Kicks and they’re really young, one is fifteen and the other is seventeen I think. I really like them.

The band are about to go on a big promotional tour around Britain and Europe, does the thought of that long on the road scare you at all?

No actually, I’m really excited to get out there and play all the different venues. It’s going to be lots of fun going back to German and England and going to places we’ve not been to before.

Do Those Dancing Days revel in the murky underworld of the post gig parties and nightlife?

It depends where we are and who we know there really. We have fun that’s for sure. It’s always nice if people come up to you and you talk about the show and then you go to another bar and then a club or to see a band, we saw Micachu (and The Shapes) recently that was a good night. The festivals were great as well; we got to be right at the front for Blondie at Latitude.

Do you find much time for exploring the towns and cities you are playing in between gigs?

We have been very bad at going out and looking around places really. We go back to the hotel and take a shower; you never know where your next shower is coming from. We like to go shopping too. The thing is we don’t know the way around a lot of cities so it’s hard to just go and find cool things to do. We are definitely going to try and see more things on this tour though.

Earlier this year your singer Linnea sold the promise of a kiss on Ebay. Can you tell us what happened there? Who won?

Oh no, no - that was some creepy guy pretending to be us.

Really? So that’s not true at all?

No! It was some weird guy who made it all up. I’d like to think our music is good enough on its own and that we have better ways of promoting ourselves than to resort to stupid things like that.

Did you find out who did it?

Some guy in Liverpool? No, Leeds. He was a creep from Leeds.

Are you playing in Leeds on the tour?

I’m not sure, I don’t think so. Have a look on Myspace and see.

We do and they are. November 25th- Leeds Cockpit.

Oh no, we’d better watch our backs. Get ourselves a big bodyguard like Beyonce.


Before the interview I had hoped to discover what made this band angry, because it’s not normal to be that nice all the time right? But then being 18, travelling the world and playing in a brilliant band is hardly steam out of the ears inducing is it? The songs alongside the sentiment is all genuine and heartfelt. Those Dancing Days are a perfect pop band, towing the line between the mainstream and alternative with style and panache. We recommend you embrace them when they tour the country on these dates.

October

Oct 21st- London Kings College
Oct 22nd- Manchester Deaf Institute

November

Nov 23rd- Bristol Thekla
Nov 24th- Goldsmiths Students Union
Nov 25th- Leeds Cockpit
Nov 27th- Sheffield Fuzz Club
Nov 28th- Lancaster Library
Nov 29th- Newcastle- The Other Rooms
Nov 30th- Glasgow Captains Rest

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