Umeå Scenereport

by Mattias Johansson

THE TOWN

Umeå is a town in Västerbottens län with about 115.000 inhabitants. The hardcore scene here goes back to the late 80:s when bands like Garbage Pailkids and Step Forward started playing. Step Forward was one of the very first hardcore punk bands in Sweden to adapt to the straight edge lifestyle, and in the mid-90´s Umeå was the fucking hardcore Mecca with a huge sXe scene and bands like Refused, Final Exit, Doughnuts, Abhinanda and so on (a member from Biohazard actually called Umeå “the hardcore capital of Europe” and that might just be true actually). After the decline of the sXe movement in the mid 90´s the scene was rather dead for a while even though bands like E.T.A and DS 13 kept the banner high. A few years ago, the scene got better again and we now have shitloads of bands – everything from raging grindcore to new wave punk.

Umeå is a student town, so lots of people move here from all over Sweden to study at the local university and this of course have some important effects on the scene – one effect is that since people from all over Sweden move up here, people tend to move away quite often as well. Consequently, many Umeå-bands break up or relocate to bigger cities down south after a while, as the band members move away after their study-time is finished (bands like Ambulance, Tristess and Dödsdömd started out here in Umeå, but now most members live elsewhere) Umeå Hardcore, the crew that puts up most of the shows, is also affected by this – one year, lots of people may be active but the next year just a few people are left. At the moment, the UÅHC collective is in hiatus, but there are still lots of people getting together to book shows etc.

BANDS

If we start at one end of the scale we have Hellmasker: a death/grindcore-act that has most of their fanbase in the metalscene. However, the band doesn’t mind playing punk gigs, and if you listen to the music it is obvious that there are some d-beat influences in there as well. They have only released one demo, which by now is many years old, and I doubt that they will record anything new. However, they still play live occasionally. Lesra plays brutal fucking metal/hc and is really huge locally here in Umeå. The sound is pretty much a mix of thrash metal and NYHC (sort of Slayer meets Madball). We also have Suppression – female fronted metal/hardcore/sludge, sort of like a mix of Cult Of Luna and PJ Harvey! Sounds weird, but they are really fucking good. This band is pretty new in the scene, but I hope to see them play live more often in the future… Bingo will soon release a debut LP on Wasted Sounds. The music is hard to describe, but I guess fucked up power violence-grind with male/female vocals is a good name for it (sort of Umeås own Discordance Axis). Auktion is a group of youngsters who should be fairly well known within the scene by now. Their full length record “D-beat rock n roll mayhem”, released about 2 years ago, have gotten a lot of attention and the record title pretty much defines the sound, even though I personally think there is much more classic swe-hardcore in their music than “rock n roll”. Auktion is a fucking great live act, and probably one of the most touring bands around in Sweden these days, so make sure to check them out live if you have the chance. A new record called “Spader ess” should be out pretty soon. Umeås only genuine crust band, Personkrets 3:1, have released 2 full length records and 2 EP´s since they started up and the sound can basically be described as dark and gloomy crustcore. The band broke up a few weeks ago, but 3 out of 5 members have formed a new band called Misantropic who play pretty similar music, but with more death/stenchcore influences. Attitydproblem is a new band that havent released anything yet, but I want to mention them since they are really fucking good and will probably get more attention in the future. Musicwise, the sound can be described as a mix of Municipal Waste and Minor Threat and the few live shows I’ve seen with them so far looks really promising. Another band who hasn’t recorded anything yet is Painkiller (swe-hardcore), but they have gotten a lot of local attention because of their fucked up live shows, that includes lots of props and weird shit. Amöba plays fast and furious 80’s swe-HC similar to Missbrukarna and Mob 47 and their demo “Malå i ruiner” is fucking amazing, probably one of the best demos I’ve heard in years – so make sure to check them out (a 7” EP should be out in 2008). Instängd plays similar music, and they also have a debut EP out now.

The Rats used to be called Rabid Grannies but for some reason they changed their name after 2 EP´s and a few tours. The Rats play fast fucking hardcore/trash and they are really active touring and playing live. Some members from The Rats also play in Kommunen who have a sound similar to old Swedish punk rock bands like KSMB. A 7” EP with them is available as we speak. Disconvenience (female fronted punk rock) broke up earlier this summer, but is now reformed with some new members and a under new name: Epidemics. Same goes for Masshysteri, who used to be called The Vicious but changed their name and style after 1 EP and a full-length CD/LP. The Vectors and The Social Bombs are two other punk rock bands worth checking out (both have releases out) and last, but not least, Regulations should be mentioned. Guess you all know them by now…

VENUES

The shows are nowadays mostly put up at Verket, a new place that is run completely by the bands. Many foreign bands playing here seem to think that Verket is a squat, but its not – we pay rent for the space and try to avoid trouble with the law, but it’s organized pretty much like a squat/autonomous center with weekly meetings etc. A total of around 10 bands rehearse at Verket in 4 rehearsal rooms, and we also have a bar/café + a room for shows. Most of the hardcore/punk gigs are put up here since we run the place ourselves and can sell beer, food etc on shows. Lots of metal heads have started to hang out at Verket, and a few metal shows have been put up there by the local metal scene. These shows have been well organized, with lots of insane moshing and head banging, and hopefully the punk and metal scenes will cooperate more in the future. Hamnmagasinet is a place close to Verket, where most of the bigger events take place (like the annual Punkfest for example). There are also skate ramps, rehearsal rooms and a café connected to the venue witch makes it popular amongst younger kids. This is a youth center, so all the shows are “all ages” which off course in Sweden means absolutely no drunk people inside. This is always kind of boring, so the venue is not used as often these days as it was before. However, it’s a big venue with complete backline etc, so sometimes it’s easier to put up shows there. Farmen is a punk collective located in an big old house on an island in the Umeå river. Lots of people from the scene live there, and this is where most visiting bands sleep when playing in Umeå. Sometimes live bands play in their kitchen, and they also have a bar where they sell cheap beer. Great place, with lots of awesome parties! There is also a bunch of clubs that put up punk shows, but they are always 18+ and pretty damn expensive to get in at so I won’t promote them here…

OTHER ACTIVITIES

There are not many political activities going on in Umeå (considering the size of the town). In the mid 90:s the local animal rights groups made a big media impact by burning beef trucks and smashing store windows, but now the political actions are few. At Hamnmagasinet, mentioned above, Folkkök (sort of a “Food not bombs”-thing) sells vegan lunch for 20kr once a week, but that’s about it. There are feminist organizations, animal rights groups, AFA Umeå, a pretty big SAC-section and so on but these groups are not really connected to the punk scene at all. Many people from the scene are members of the groups, but they don’t really work together. The only organization worth mentioning as a part of the scene is probably She´s Got the Beat, an all female (separatistic) organization for bands who sometimes cooperate with Umeå Hardcore.

The Umeå scene has definitely had its ups and downs. When I moved here about 4 years ago the scene was pretty stale, but at the moment things are great and hopefully this will last. Obviously, there is a lot of “inbreeding” and shit, but I still think we have lots of bands and pretty many active people. Verket and Farmen are two cool new places that I think gave the scene a healthy “fuel injection”, and if you play here you will have a great time. However, in my opinion we still can work on lots of things: Umeå is, in my opinion, a little bit too “loyal” to the southern scenes (probably because lots of people living here come from the south originally) and we could really learn to cooperate more with the scenes up north, and the scenes in Finland. But there is also a pretty stupid rivalry between Umeå and Luleå that I think is kind of weird. Being the only two cities in Norrland with an active scene, we should work more together…

Links to the local bands can be found at:

www.myspace.com/verketumea