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A few years back, my pal Kate Silver played me a record I loved pretty immediately. The group was the Thing, a skronk-jazz trio featuring reeds player Mats Gustafsson (from Sweden), bassist Ingebrigt H. Flaten, and drummer Paal Nilssen-Love (both from Norway), and the song was their cover of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ “Art Star.” If you’re familiar with “Art Star,” you’ll know it doesn’t take much work to reimagine it in this form (it hops up and down rhythmically during the verses and then turns into spazzy noise on the refrain). I’ve kept less of an ear on the Thing’s other work, though I’ve liked what I’ve heard, but I’m thinking of checking out the new four-CD box reissuing some older titles. “Art Star” makes an appearance on one of the discs in a live version, and in that spirit, here’s a clip of the Thing playing it live in Sweden. [YouTube]
Scandi-Nordic Jazz Covers Of ’00s Indie? Yeah Yeah Yeah
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How about big band jazz covers of 90s nordic pop?
Also worth checking out are The Thing’s collaborations with free jazz great Joe McPhee and garage act Cato Salsa Experience. There’s a live record from a festival called “Sounds Like a Sandwich” (which includes “Art Star” and a cover of “Whole Lotta Love”) and a pair of releases where they’re billed as “Two Bands and a Legend.” On one of those they do PJ Harvey’s “Who the Fuck.”
Mats Gustafson was my hands-down favorite member of the Brotzmann Tentet (+2) shows I saw. He did this weird twittering thing with his reed that was truly wild.