So by now you’ve must have heard about our label/concept/collective/whatever..INGRID!
If not, now the website is up and running http://www.ingrd.com. Check it out!
It’s obviously the site to visit to stay in tune for all upcoming Ingrid-activities. Please also follow us on Twitter and Facebook!
And here’s the special mash-up-mixtape-thing that John did of all the tracks of the upcoming compilation;
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We have also taken the time to gather some favourable live-reviews from last years touring, for your reading pleasure. This is also a grand mix of languages, blogs and old school-print-press online. And they are not put in any special order.
Enjoy here;
http://peterbjornandjohn.com/blog/gimme-some-live-reviews/
If you have any reviews to add; just put them (a link) in a comment and we’ll add to the list!
I think you all remember that we released a record last year called “Gimme Some” right? Anyway that record got a LOT of great reviews all around the world. We had a plan way back when the record came out to document some of these for the files of this, our web-site. As many things tend to get, this got delayed or forgotten. But it’s never too late right? Even if we’re now well into march 2012;)
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/
#15 Slussen/Medis/Sofo
So after you’ve been to “Gamla Stan” and are heading to Södermalm you will pass “Slussen”. Slussen is really originally a lock for different waterways in Stockholm but when you think about it you mostly focus on all the roads leading traffic in and out of the city.
This place is gonna be rebuilt very soon, simply because it’s molding underneath and will eventually fall apart. So take the chance to see it before it’s too late! The view you get from it, out against the water and Djurgården; http://peterbjornandjohn.com/blog/2011/11/gimme-some-some-best-of-stockholm-7/, is astonishing, especially on a sunny spring day. Nearby is also the classic restaurant Gondolen; http://www.eriks.se/ owned by famous swedish chef Erik Lallerstedt. It’s situated on top of an elevator from where the view is even more amazing. Underneath Slussen at Karl Johans Torg (“Karl Johan” is an old swedish king who sits on a horse as a statue here) lies the original Debaser, an old school rock’n'roll-club http://www.debaser.se/ and still the best place to see a smaller band, especially on a weeknight. You should make sure you visit this soon as well since it will go down with the rest of the old Slussen. PB&J have played here many times back in the days before “Young Folks”. Debaser have grown and now hosts one club in Malmö as well as a bigger room at Medborgarplatsen. You can walk between the two Debasers by going up Götgatsbacken. On that street you can find some bars and guitarshops and if you turn left you can walk up to Mosebacke Torg; 
Here you can visit the nice concertvenue Södra Teatern, one of the best in Stockholm, especially for singer-songwriter-stuff and “world-music” (hate that tag); http://www.sodrateatern.com/. Mosebacke have more stages; Mosebacke Etablissement itself, a classic hangout for troubadors, comedians etc. They have an outdoors bar and stage during the summer with all kinds of concerts and yet another fantastic view of Stockholm; 
And Kägelbanan, downstairs with usually more rocking concerts. If you’re a vegetarian you can a get a big buffé and still another great view at nearby Hermans; http://gastrogate.com/restaurang/hermans/page/8.
Continue walking down götgatan and you’ll end up at Medborgarplatsen which is kind of the central of Södermalm. Not a supernice place in itself, I hear you can get robbed here at night, but they do have the aforementioned big Debaser-room and also the classic swedish restaurant/beerhall/footballfan-hangout Kvarnen, worth a visit for sure; http://kvarnen.com/. It was the place to get drunk in the 90′s. Right across Kvarnen on the other side of Björns trädgård (I have to say Bjorn is rarely seen here, so it can’t be his garden) is a younger “cooler” bar with good food called Babylon; http://www.travelandleisure.com/restaurants/babylon
Also nearby is the classic punkvenue Kafé 44; http://kafe44.org/
Here is a song called “Götgatan”;
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
