Peter Bjorn and John are a Swedish indie rock band that is probably most known for their 2006 single “Young Folks” off the album Writers Block. By the end of the summer of 2007 you were either whistling the chorus at least once a day or gouging your ears out with an ice pick everytime you heard it overplayed on WXRT. Nonetheless it was one catchy tune.
Few people realize, but PB&J is actually named after 3 people and not 2. Peter Morén (vocals, guitar and harmonica), Björn Yttling (bass guitar, keyboards and vocals) and John Eriksson (drums, percussion and vocals).They have put out 2 albums since Writers Block. One was called Seaside Rock, an instrumental that can be hard for anyone but hardcore PB&J fans to get in to. The other is this year’s release Living Thing. Living Thing is a definite departure from the spacious and flowing pop music one was accustomed to when listening to PB&J. It sounds like an attempt to test their songwriting, but in the end the music doesn’t hold up and you keep asking yourself, Where is the hook? PB&J seemed like they were destined to break out after Writer’s Block, but have come up short in their last 2 projects. In this reviewer's opinion they were good at writing pop music with lofty lyrics and simple crowd pleasers. They had that feeling of classical music with a rock-sound and all has been lost on this new record with their reliance on a drum-machine.
PB&J played Lollapalooza in 2007 and their set was delayed about 20 minutes due to a power outage. To pass time they started scaling the banners next to the stage and were either drunk or consumed by heat exhaustion. They finished up their set with “Objects of My Affection," and "Up Against the Wall," two pretty powerful numbers that hopefully get played over anything off their new album at this year’s Lollapalooza. I would make a stop by PB&J for a song or two, but until they go back to what they were good at there are plenty of other bands to see.
Few people realize, but PB&J is actually named after 3 people and not 2. Peter Morén (vocals, guitar and harmonica), Björn Yttling (bass guitar, keyboards and vocals) and John Eriksson (drums, percussion and vocals).They have put out 2 albums since Writers Block. One was called Seaside Rock, an instrumental that can be hard for anyone but hardcore PB&J fans to get in to. The other is this year’s release Living Thing. Living Thing is a definite departure from the spacious and flowing pop music one was accustomed to when listening to PB&J. It sounds like an attempt to test their songwriting, but in the end the music doesn’t hold up and you keep asking yourself, Where is the hook? PB&J seemed like they were destined to break out after Writer’s Block, but have come up short in their last 2 projects. In this reviewer's opinion they were good at writing pop music with lofty lyrics and simple crowd pleasers. They had that feeling of classical music with a rock-sound and all has been lost on this new record with their reliance on a drum-machine.
PB&J played Lollapalooza in 2007 and their set was delayed about 20 minutes due to a power outage. To pass time they started scaling the banners next to the stage and were either drunk or consumed by heat exhaustion. They finished up their set with “Objects of My Affection," and "Up Against the Wall," two pretty powerful numbers that hopefully get played over anything off their new album at this year’s Lollapalooza. I would make a stop by PB&J for a song or two, but until they go back to what they were good at there are plenty of other bands to see.
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