Comments on: For Schytts & Grins

For Schytts & Grins

mattholomew — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:45:26 -0800

By: datawrangler

datawrangler — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:52:26 -0800

Who knew that matching outfits could make a viewer's eyes bleed. About halfway down the page, I could take no more pain.

By: Iosephus

Iosephus — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 18:57:38 -0800

Good god, there are some awesomely hideous clothes there. I'd bet some could even qualify as Gitmo-level psych torture if forced to exposure during a full lenght concert.

By: TheGoldenOne

TheGoldenOne — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:09:29 -0800

Do Swedish people still look like that?

By: PlusDistance

PlusDistance — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:13:36 -0800

Well, there goes the myth that all Swedes are ridiculously good-looking.

By: puke & cry

puke & cry — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:24:37 -0800

These were taken from svenskadansband.se. There's a lot more covers there although I don't know if they're all from the 1970s.

By: Karlos the Jackal

Karlos the Jackal — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:37:35 -0800

Man, look at all those -- I assume -- Norwegian immigrants.

By: droplet

droplet — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 19:38:22 -0800

I never knew that Swedes could be so dark. I totally bought the pale blond stereotype. I'm sorry, y'all. These guys remind me so much of Milwaukee for some reason. Like, these are the cover bands that are going to play the fish frys at the Eagles Club for the next year version of 1970s Milwaukee. And I was especially struck by the specs because windshields like those covered over half of my tiny child face back in the day, too. Imagine a 7 year old in those. And, ew! ewww!, I'm now reminded of the rust-colored polyester gauchos from Penney's with the G.A.S.S. knockoffs and Holly Hobbie-style tops I was dressed in. Yarn bows in my hair! White opaque knee socks! Acrylic Fair Isle sweaters in colors unknown in nature! ::shudders:: Thank Bob that I still look young enough to sport the latest clothes if I want to, but that I'm old enough to know which styles suit me best. And none of those styles involve elephant trousers.

By: thequietriot

thequietriot — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:50:06 -0800

If i ever have children, these images will be what i use to scare them into being good. The fear of a 70's Swedish dance band coming into your room at night would keep anyone in line.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 21:10:17 -0800

ROFL!!! Thanks for the guffaws! Wonderfully awful. Truly a page of flinch inducement. Each pic more cringeworthy than the next. The collars! The sheer whiteness of the taste. White! omg, boys in red cross nurse outfits, say wha? You know their moms made these. By the time I got to this one and saw the jeans I thought, oh great, some bad boys, then I looked at the shoes. Oh no. the band is ACTUALLY called the Schytts? And then I got to the bottom of the page, to the bird pooping on child. *wipes tears

By: mazola

mazola — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:04:12 -0800

That's what benevolent socialism gets you -- you've been warned America!

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 22:46:57 -0800

Tellus was the coolest band. Some of the girls went for Jens because he was the funny one. Other girls liked Benny because he was the cute one. Magnus appealed to some due to his brooding intellect. Sture was mystical and into eastern religions. But Andreas - oh, Andreas - he was the bad boy of the bunch.

By: skyscraper

skyscraper — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:31:27 -0800

Who knew that in the 70s I could have moved to Sweden and been the good-looking guy instead of the goofy-looking guy? Was there anybody left to dance? Seems as if everybody was in a band.

By: Flex1970

Flex1970 — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:37:11 -0800

They all look at home, deep in some magical forest. All except Selex. I'm seriously thinking about naming my first boy Magnus. This is true entertainment. They look truck-fucked up, but they were doing their thing. I finally know where Ambrosia came from. They look like they came from Sweden.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 23:59:35 -0800

Oh no. the band is ACTUALLY called the Schytts? They're wearing those brown pants for a reason. Welcome to Minnesota!

By: crapmatic

crapmatic — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 00:48:52 -0800

Man, I'd pay money to see a page showing a THEN column on the left with the 70s album and a NOW column on the right, showing what they look like now and what they're doing.

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:24:11 -0800

Man, I'd pay money to see a page showing a THEN column on the left with the 70s album and a NOW column on the right, showing what they look like now and what they're doing. Check out this Myspace page for the Schytts. They're still going strong! Oh, and crapmatic... I'll take a check or a money order.

By: twoleftfeet

twoleftfeet — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:37:38 -0800

Didn't you hear me? I told you to check the Schytts Myspace page! But you haven't done it yet! Do you have better things to do? Seriously, CHECK OUT THE SCHYTTS MYSPACE PAGE! You will find wonderful videos and blog entries, I Schytt you not. Our cuniform massage plows scissors in the field of noise majesty. Our chickens step in their pure gold like displays on notes of thoughts with the sound.

By: crapmatic

crapmatic — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 01:49:28 -0800

Thanks, twoleftfeet, for giving me the Schytts!

By: iviken

iviken — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:16:00 -0800

That's what benevolent socialism gets you -- you've been warned America! True, sort of. Their outfits were strange and ugly, in part because they had to be "stage costumes", not "ordinary clothes", to be tax deductible. The Swedish marginal tax rates in the 70s were famously up to 102% of annual income. Still, the Swedish tax rates can not explain this: Cher and The Osmonds wearing matching, purple pantsuits (1975).

By: fearfulsymmetry

fearfulsymmetry — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 02:25:25 -0800

The past is another country, they do things differently there. In flares.

By: greenskpr

greenskpr — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:19:22 -0800

CHECK OUT THE SCHYTTS MYSPACE PAGE! Subscribe to the blog = get on the Schyyt list.

By: soundofsuburbia

soundofsuburbia — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 04:41:10 -0800

Ah yes, dansband. A really rather interesting phenomenon. To me at least. I mean, sure, you can draw similarities between that culture and others, but at the heart of it, dansband is one of the most "swedish" things there is. And it's a culture that's still going strong! For instance, one of the most popular swedish TV shows right now is "Dansbandskampen" , a "battle between the dansbands" kind of thing. A few years ago the really rather wonderful and fictional show "Leende guldbruna ögon" (which translates into "Smiling golden brown eyes") was a huge success, it dealt with the first "black" swedish dansband. And, of course, people still go out dancing to dansbands. Apart from shooting promotional photos to die for, swedish dansbands of the seventies also made wonderful record covers. The blog Katastrofala omslag ("Disastrous covers") has a nice selection.

By: DecemberBoy

DecemberBoy — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:35:41 -0800

I was all ready to say "this is totally old", but this page appears to have a bunch of covers I've never seen before. Of course, they had to include the ultimate goofy-looking 70s Swedish band, Gert Jonnys (last one, all the way at the bottom), without which no collection of Swedish album covers is complete. Man, how the hell did they go from this to extreme metal?

By: soundofsuburbia

soundofsuburbia — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:43:06 -0800

Man, how the hell did they go from this to extreme metal? I think Europe is the missing link you're looking for! :)

By: resurrexit

resurrexit — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 05:47:07 -0800

LÖL

By: iviken

iviken — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:15:32 -0800

LÖL ÖL > LÖL

By: bookwo3107

bookwo3107 — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 06:35:06 -0800

So, what does it say about me that I totally want some of these shirts? Er, new that is. Not with 30+ years of Swedish Schytt funk on them.

By: mattholomew

mattholomew — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 08:59:39 -0800

So, what does it say about me that I totally want some of these shirts? That you don't follow the herd mentality? That you're color blind? That you don't want to have to deal with fabrics that might biodegrade on you at some point in the next 10,000 years?

By: philip-random

philip-random — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 09:43:26 -0800

Abba suddenly seem so unbelievably cool.

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 10:48:27 -0800

Man, how the hell did they go from this to extreme metal? Well, the Moonlighters' logo seems to harbor a forerunner of Mayhem's inverted cross motif.

By: tommasz

tommasz — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 11:41:07 -0800

Surpringly few umlauts, all things considered. But on a serious note, I think we can finally say definitively what caused the oil shortages of the 1970s.

By: greenskpr

greenskpr — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 14:12:59 -0800

...also, suck it Sweden.

By: nickyskye

nickyskye — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 15:55:46 -0800

iviken, that Cher and the Osmonds video you linked was strange and marvelous icing on a good day. Thanks so much for that.

By: msconduct

msconduct — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 17:29:57 -0800

you have just ruined every preconception i ever had about sweden, swedish people, and dance bands. no wonder i spent my disco years drunk as a skunk.

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 23:53:52 -0800

DANSBAND

By: louche mustachio

louche mustachio — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 00:00:30 -0800

YES.