p.s. This saturday in Stockholm we will have a launchparty for the Hell On Wheels/PBJ-split-7-inch (http://peterbjornandjohn.com/blog/2012/04/gimme-some-chills-kiwis-part-2/) at the great Södermalm bar Snottys at Skånegatan 90 from 8.00 pm! We spin some favorite songs and sell the rare record. Come and party with us and get your own copy d.s.

p.s. 2!
Don’t miss this springs releases from Ingrid; http://www.ingrd.com/2012/ingrid-springsummer-2012/ d.s.

best/pbj

Only 300 copies of the split 7” were made and only 200 are available for sale to the public. To get your very own copy visit http://www.drella.com. They have a few. We might sale some at upcoming shows but we believe a lot of the copies will go fast at an upcoming launchevent we’re planning in Stockholm!
Watch PBJ’s Facebook & Twitter closely to get details about that!
We sent 100 copies straigth to the Flying Nun-office to do with them whatever they pleased and they were very pleased indeed! And now we have some new friends;)
For more information on Flying Nun Records (home of The Chills, The Clean, The Verlaines, Tall Dwarfs, The Bats, and oh so many more) go to: http://www.flyingnun.co.nz.
You have to check out all those band our stay sorry the rest of you life!

And if you’ve never heard The Chills, get started now!!!
The classic “Pink Frost”;

“Kaleidoscope World”;
“Doledrums”, great video;
Videos where better in the early 80′s; “Flamethrower”

And here is a classic tune by Hell On Wheels;

Over & out!

More kiwi-news in a few days!

P.S. Not really PBJ-stuff but related;
Bjorn and a guy we can call Bear has a band called SMILE
that has a video out now;
http://www.ingrd.com/2012/smile-clean-gloves-dirty-hands/
The song is on the upcoming Ingrid-comp.
Also Peter has a website under construction which gives away a free mp3 for now and also has a video; http://www.petermoren.com.
Cheers!

Lots of love to all our fans for supporting us!

Best,
// PB&J

1. Tomorrow Has To Wait (buy at iTunes)

2. Dig A Little Deeper (buy at iTunes)

3. Second Chance (buy at iTunes)

4. Eyes (buy at iTunes)

5. Breaker Breaker (buy at iTunes)

6. May Seem Macabre (buy at iTunes)

7. Cool Off (buy at iTunes)

8. Black Book (buy at iTunes)

9. Down Like Me (buy at iTunes)

10. Lies (buy at iTunes)

11. I Know You Don’t Love Me (buy at iTunes)

Here is one in french;

And here’s a cut from Uncut.

And here’s one from the Swedish magazine Sonic;

And on a site like this you can read a whole lot of them collected;
http://www.anydecentmusic.com/review/2765/Peter-Bjorn-And-John-Gimme-Some.aspx

but the biggest collection is probably another click away on this very site after the jump; 
http://peterbjornandjohn.com/blog/gimme-some-gimme-some-reviews/

After medborgarplatsen, heading deeper into södermalm, you will cross a street called Folkungagatan. After that you’re officially in the “Sofo”-area, “South of folkungagatan”. Well, we’ve all heard about Soho in London and NYC. It feels like a really cheap salesmantrick to ape that in small Stockholm. And that is just what it is; a marketingtrick. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SoFo Still the label has stuck and I do use it regularly.

So is the shopping good here? Yeah, it’s decent! On Skånegatan you have the legendary recordshop Pet Sounds; http://www.petsounds.se/ and just round the corner on Bondegatan, Bengans just opened one to; http://www.bengans.se/. Pet Sounds also have a bar/restaurant/small venue across the street from their shop! On nearby Södermannagatan 19 you have the vintagestore An Ideal For Living; http://www.facebook.com/pages/An-Ideal-for-Living-Stockholm-AB/152535018130835?sk=photos, that deals with designerstuff and clothes but also have a great vinylselection for us vinyljunkies.
I don’t really like encouraging people to buy new clothes since it’s against the planet, but still, on Södermannagatan is Grandpa; http://www.grandpa.se/system/content/html.asp?p=butik_soder, where a friend works and they have a good selection for both sexes. On Kocksgatan 17 you find the nice mensshop http://www.kocksgatan17.se/se/ and one of Johns best friends are actually partowner. So I feel I can reccomend theese places!
If you wanna continue in ecological vintage-style there is Lisa Larsson; http://www.lisalarssonsecondhand.com/, (which is good for womens clothes) on Bondegatan and the charity organisation Stadsmissionen; http://www.stadsmissionen.se/Secondhand/ on Skånegatan.
If you’re into rockabilly you can get gear and also a haircut at Sivletto on Malmgårdsgatan; http://sivletto.com/.
Two good vintageshops called Judiths (where you might even be able to buy some old PBJ-clothes) are situated at nearby Mariatorget (an area that are not part of SOFO and that we already mentioned in a previous blog but what the heck), for men; http://herrjudit.se/sv/ and women; http://www.judits.se/V%C3%A4lkommen.html.

Back to sofo! I would say the main reason to hang here is not shopping after all. It’s barhopping! And they are mostly based around the cozy little square called Nytorget;

The only 2 bars I frequent regularly is Snottys on Skånegatan http://www.spottedbylocals.com/stockholm/snotty-sounds-bar/ and Harvest Home on Bondegatan 50. Snottys for good music and chatting with friends. Harvest essentially for the same; but it’s a little more laidback and grown-up with less indie and more Neil Young in the speakers. Both also serve decent enough food. And you can bring your dog! Essential for a dogowner! The same goes for the nearby café Gilda.

You have to visit Pelikan on Blekingegatan, http://www.pelikan.se/sidor/eng_index.htm, a really classic swedish restaurant and beerhall, originally built in the 1660′s. No annoying music, proper dishes with herring and meatballs, if you want to taste and feel swedish, this is the place! I always bring visitors here when they want to eat traditional swedish food. But there are more nice bars, cafés and restaurants in this area. Like El Mundo, Urban Deli, Il caffe, the vintage guitarshop Twang; http://www.twang.se/ that also serve coffe, some nice indian restaurants, the list goes on forever. You just have to check yourself or ask a local for their favourite. A recent new favourite for me is this one just by nytorget; http://barcentral.se/; lots of food! I like the soup at this caffé; http://www.facebook.com/FrokenAnderssonsKaffebar. And I have to reccomend this place for oysters, fish and the like; http://sv-se.facebook.com/pages/Starre-Co/186078404757018?sk=wall&filter=12.

Another draw in the Södermalm area is all the nice old buildings, lot’s of them from the 1700′s. If you walk up to the park Vita Bergen (the white mountains) you can see some of the small cozy cottages that now are worth LOTS of money probably. This whole area used to be poor peoples hoods; now it obviously isn’t. But it must have been nice to be poor in the old days if you could have the amazing views that you get from what we call the heights of Söder.

At Vita Bergsparken there is an outdoors theathre that operates during the summer with concerts and shows. The troubador-legend Carl-Anton used to do legendary singalongshows here for many, many years that was also broadcast by swedish tv; we let him close this long section of the Stockholmguide with a song from a summery Stockholm.
Bye!
peter

#14 Gamla Stan/The Old Town

No, I’m not kidding.
I’m picking up this series again.
Why not? There’s plenty left of great things to do and see here in our beautiful
town and I just thought now and then if we feel like it, this series can drop back in.
Ok?

So. The Old Town. Tourist trap? Yes. Especially the street called Västerlånggatan filled
with souvenir shops where you can buy dildos and foam-elks and not amazing restaurants.
But…
just walk a little bit further away from it, along the cobblestone streets, into the narrow alleys, like Mårten Trotzigs gränd, the narrowest alley in Stockholm.

Maybe walk up to Stortorget and feel history closing in on you.

After all this is the original square/piazza around which the first version of Stockholm city was built in the 13th century. Yes I’m not kidding. Stockholm is an old place. Ancient almost.
In 1520 the bloodbath of Stockholm took place here and there was a lot of executions. Creepy.

In the 1700′s Stockholm had around 600 pubs and party animals all went to The Old Town.
One of them was Carl Michael Bellman our first national-poet. He often sang about being extremely drunk on the verge of puking and also sang about sex. He did it in a poetic way though. Through hearing his songs you get a picture of the streets of the old town in those days. It must have smelled like hell! Especially since everyone threw their trash (including toiletwaste) into the streets. And on top of that a lot of drunks passed out all around. It has been documented that Swedes drank an awful lot in those days so it wasn’t just Bellmans fantasies.
One of Bellmans hang outs was Den Gyldene Freden (The Golden Peace) established in 1722 and it is still around to this day! Probably because Bellman hung there it has long after drawn in other troubadors and poets like Evert Taube, Cornelis Vreeswijk, Olle Adolphsson, Lars Forsell, Pär Rådström etc, etc (long list) .
If you learn who got drunk at Gyldene Freden you will have an easier time studying swedish literature at Stockholms University. Evert Taube had his own table there until he died and here he sings a song in the very place;

I’ve never been to Gyldene Freden but we do have a lot of more modern and great places here now as well
like Le Rouge, http://lerouge.se, Bistro Ruby, http://www.grillruby.com/, Pubologi, http://www.pubologi.se/ and loads of places I’ve never been to but that I’ve heard are good.

No matter what happened here it’s a blessing to have so much
history around you and still feel that the city breaths very much in the present tense at the same time. Last week, spring took hold of us here, pretty early for Stockholm and I walked around The Old Town with a friend and kind of rediscovered it. So don’t miss. Just the architecture is worth it of course!!
And if you’re hoping to see the king or the prime-minister, both works nearby;)
best/peter