The Thousand
Dollar Playboys
Stay
Imported from Sweden!
"..The $1000 Playboys from Sundsvall make the most
outrageous American rock n roll a Swedish band has ever done. A fantastic
album for those of you who like the Rolling Stones and Gram Parson."
-Aftonbladet (Swedish national daily newspaper)
"The Playboys develop the heritage from Gram Parson,
Flying Burrito Brothers, Byrds and other countryrock artists with honour
- sensitive ballads, passionate rock, strong songs, great choruses, slick
brass in Jesus and powerful pedal steel. Top that with lyrics that are
not cowboyhat-stupid."
-Slitz (culture, entertainment and fashion magazine from Sweden)
"The $1000 Playboys album sounds like a lost tape
from 1975, discovered in a safe of a manic publisher in Nashville searching
for the country music of the future."
-Dagens Nyheter (Swedish national daily newspaper)
In the fall of 1996 Lars Bygdén convinced some of his friends to
start a band. The $1000 Playboys played their first gig that December
at Pipeline (in Sundsvall) and totally stunned the audience. And this
was just the beginning. Peter Svensson of the Cardigans saw the band perform
and he realized that this was a band aiming for the stars. Svensson financed
an album recording at Tambourine Studios in the fall 1997. The road to
fame seemed paved and ready. But after 1½ year of fruitless negotiation
with several labels they still had no record deal.
In the winter of 1999, the band signed with independent record label Massproduktion.
A new recording session was planned. Meanwhile, national Swedish radio
P3 broadcast the Playboys live during a PopStad event and this was released
as a track on the promotional CD "The Rope". The $1000 Playboys
were now in rotation on national radio despite the fact that they still
hadn't released an album!
In May the recordings started, now with Linus Larsson as producer. A wide
variety of guests are featured on the album and several of the tracks
were captured live in the studio...only three tracks from the Tambourine
recordings made it to the self titled debut album (released 25 October
1999).
The first single "Preacher" was play-listed
for 8 weeks by the National Radio P3. Spring 2000 meant a new video, a
new single and more gigs all over Sweden. The fall tour under the name
"Järnvägar!" was filmed by National TV and resulted
in a documentary that was broadcast late 2000.
Now, with the release of their second album "STAY!" they have
developed into a band ready to compete on the international scene. Produced
by Micke Herrström, the album was recorded live at the legendary
Atlantis Studio in Stockholm. The prospect of a live recording scared
the band a bit but Herrström's vision prevailed: "...everything
sounds much better if you record live, you think less- and regarding Lars,
I wanted to bring out the Johnny Thunders in him..." At the time
lead singer Lars Bygdén saw it differently: "...everything
was so terrible, I almost fired Micke, too much pressure..."
STAY cuts a wider musical path than the debut. The single
Got to Keep Moving and albumtrack As The Desperation Comes was frequently
played by National radio P3 and P4 found their favourite in Stay. The
press is great. Featuring more guest artists and showcasing the band's
strength as a fantastic live act; "STAY!" is an album to brag
about.
During spring 2002 the new album was released in Europe and Canada receiving
great reviews and the band also played gigs in Paris and London. During
Christmas 2002 A very special Christmas got even higher rotation on regional
and national radio than during the release year. 2003 the band toured
the US
for the first time, receiving good reviews and quite a lot of attention
- even by CNN.
Price- $15.00
Check out the first CD from The Thousand
Dollar Playboys as well.
|