Out of Swede Puns, but Go See Mary Onettes Anyway

For as many quality Swedish bands as there are, we don't get a whole lot of them touring in America. Which makes The Mary Onettes' current US tour exciting... for me at least.

One of Labrador Records' best bands, The Mary Onettes are like, many of the groups from Sweden, obsessed with the '80s. And they're not denying it. Their MySpace page actually lists "mostly bands from the eighties..." in their Influences section.

You can hear some Echo & The Bunnymen, New Order, The Cure, The Lucy Show, The Chameleons, and other bands creeping through on The Mary Onettes' eponymous debut but they do it well and, most importantly, the songs are good. And according to my friend Toby at Seattle blog The Finest Kiss, they're even better live than on record.

The touring is wrapping up this week with dates on the East Coast, including two stops in the NYC area, one being tonight at the Mercury Lounge:

May 19 | Mercury Lounge, NYC
May 20 | M Room, Philadelphia
May 21 | DC9, Washington, DC
May 23 | Union Hall, Brooklyn
May 24 | Middle East, Boston

Here's a couple MP3s from their album which you should buy of course...though chances are it will be cheaper at the show merch table than the $20 they're charging for it on Insound.

MP3: The Mary Onettes - Void

MP3: The Mary Onettes - Pleasure Songs

Opening for The Mary Onettes, on the NYC and Boston dates at least, are Blacklist who I caught a couple weeks ago at Death By Audio opening for Film School. They kind of sound like every band signed to Beggars Banquet between 1979 and 1983 -- to the point where I'm not exactly sure how serious they are. But if you have any affection for Bauhaus, Southern Death Cult and the like, be sure to get there early.

MP3: Blacklist - Blue Shifted

Comments

[WJPurdy]

Or, if you have an eMusic account, you can download it from them for 10 tracks -- in my case, about $1.90. Which is a hell of a deal, because it's a really good record. Too bad I'm not working in NYC (or any of the other cities) any more. This is a band I'd really enjoy seeing live.

[Vera]

Your Blacklist review is retarded. I suppose if you're not talkin' new wave, you don't know what you're talkin' about.