February 4 - Döderlein

In 1993, when I was discovering Motorpsycho, there was another band that started to make waves. That band was from Tønsberg, in the southern part of Norway, and they started out quite similarly to Motorpsycho - all newspapers called both bands grunge bands, yet listening back to it, I think that was a very easy way out to try to connect Norwegian music to what was going on in Seattle. I don't think there ever was a huge feud between the two bands, but there seemed to be two camps forming. I was rooted in the Motorpsycho camp, which was more of a hippie aesthetic with long jams and experiments with noise. Seigmen, on the other hand, was more of an art project - at least they turned into one. Where Motorpsycho would go on stage and jam, Seigmen's lead singer was much more theatrical and studied, and their concerts always seemed to be studied and rehearsed, whereas Motorpsycho always have prided themselves in not repeating the same setlist from day to day.

Seigmen is in other words great music from Norway that absolutely is not Motorpsycho. I really developed an appreciation for Seigmen in 1994, when they released their album Total. The album was far more rooted in art rock and the type of metal bands like Tool played, and it was really propelled by the cover version of a Norwegian classic by deLillos called Hjernen Er Alene (The Brain is Lonely - watch tomorrow's post...). While that song was what made me initially open my ears, the rest of the album was stunning, and one of the singles from the album is the gorgeous Döderlein. It combines ethereal guitars with more aggressive and discordant breaks, creating the kind of contrast I really love in music.