In The Backyard Of The Record Collection (1): Swedish Melody Punkrock

It has been quite some time since I endulged into the CD part of my record collection. maybe it's because I like vinyl better, maybe it's because I have enough music on my hard disc or maybe it's even because my CD player is standing on top of my whole equipment so it's rather tough to reach. Doesn't matter. When I was cleaning my apartment today I decided to put in a compilation CD I purchased at some time in the mid 90s. "Epitone Vol. 1" is its name and it contains some Swedish melodic punk bands. Back then there was a huge wave of swedish bands emerging onto the scene with Millencolin being the front runners, I guess. I first noticed them while flipping through a catalogue of Lost & Found Records in, I think, 1993. After some time I was so much into that sound that I blindly bought every record that came out on labels such as Burning Heart, Bad Taste or Ampersand.

This compilation features some of those bands, but the band that is still stuck in my mind is One Chord Wonders. I was never ever able to get a record by those guys, but I always liked the song "Summer Is The Time To Be". maybe because of the female background vocals, maybe because of the happy-go-lucky feeling of that song. Who knows. It's still one of my favourites.
The sampler also features two songs by Satanic Surfers with their 2nd singer with whom they also record their "Keep Out" CD EP. Great stuff. Satanic Surfers are a band I still like after all those years and I can still remember when I saw them live for the first time in 1995 in Düsseldorf. They were playing alongside Millencolin and German band Axel Sweat (yeah, a brilliant name...). The Surfers totally rocked the stage and by that time Rodrigo, their drummer, was already doing all of the singing.


So I pulled out their first three records starting out with the first record I bought and that was the aforementioned "Keep Out" EP. I still like that one because of the singer, but I like the "Skate To Hell" EP they record earlier even better. It's rougher than their later releases and suits my taste better, I guess. What a great band that was. So I was very pleased when I got to see Intensity play live in Cologne since they a) featured Rodrigo on Vocals but b) sounded a lot more like the "Skate To Hell" EP. That was a great show at the "Between".

Over the time the sound was getting annoying because there were simply too many bands playing that kind of music. But it's always nice to see and hear that some songs still stand the test of time. And if anyone knows something about One Chord Wonders, drop me a line, wil you? Thanx.