Sweden's Paper is coming to NYC - MP3 & video

by Bill Pearis

DOWNLOAD: Paper - Out of It Into It (MP3)

Stockholm, Sweden's Paper are coming to the U.S. for a three-night stint at Cake Shop (March 4 -6). Featuring Calle Olsson of the mighty Bear Quartet, their debut is an absolute stormer. Like so many Swedish bands, I first heard about them via Jim Kelly at Parasol Records, whose sub-label Hidden Agenda first brought Jose Gonzalez, The Soundtrack of Our Lives and The Moonbabies to this country. He describes Paper thusly:

Paper's sound is based around the frustration of punk, the delicacy of pop melody and the hypnotic power of repetition. Think early Wire meets early Wire, simple, single-minded, powerful; with contrails of Neu!, Silverbullit/Citizen Bird and Joy Division. Fans of The Bear Quartet's recent electronic eccentricities, Audionom's hypnotic avant-punk, and Paddington DC's zoom-pop will be spellbound, if you don't mind a bit of krautrockin' cochlea-knocking.

I also think Scandinavian-centric site It's A Trap isn't too far off when they called them "the missing step between Joy Division and New Order" and Bjorn Yttling says "If you don't like PAPER I really can´t take you seriously."

Here's video of Paper playing "Ears Keep Ringing" which may also serve as a warning to wear earplugs if you go to one of these shows: