Pitchfork

Seaside Rock, the album Peter, Bjorn and John have been hinting at since the spring, is finally ready to rock. A vinyl- and digital- only release, it will come out in the U.S. on Almost Gold/Star Time International on September 23. The U.S. edition is limited to 5000 LPs, each accompanied by a download code. (V2 will release the album in the trio's native Sweden, while Wichita will handle it in the UK.)

It turns out that Seaside Rock isn't a completely instrumental album after all. According to a press release written by PB&J themselves, "As homage to Peter Bjorn and John's respective hometowns they wanted to feature the voice and dialect from each of the three areas. So apart from the instrumental soundtrack to the lonely childhood of northern Scandinavia you can also hear three monologues about some sort of seaside. The stories are read by a real saxophone player from Norsjö, a grandfather from Vika and the hairdresser Siw from Piteå."

The album was recorded in spring 2007 at the same studio in Sweden where Abba recorded most of their material. Its sound was inspired by "the memory of the sound of the Swedish music school orchestras from hell," according to PB&J's press release. (Actually, this press release they wrote is pretty funny. So we've included most of it below the jump.)

After a spate of solo shows in support of this year's The Last Tycoon, Peter Morén will rejoin Bjorn Yttling and John Eriksson for a spate of full band dates in the early fall.

Press release:

"Peter Bjorn and John" is not a real rock band.

Peter doesn't like to sign breasts, Bjorn bought his first leather jacket at the age of 27 and John can neither spit cool nor spin his drumsticks. Still they recently found themselves touring the world, playing in front of real rock audiences that just kept getting bigger.

Is that really possible to pull off without a proper "rock band history"?

Well OK, Peter once actually had a "shoegaze hairdo," Bjorn once got laid after a party and John performed five songs by W.A.S.P. at a school party in fourth grade (including the tune "I Fuck Like A Beast") but still...

How can you create rock music having grown up with nice parents? How could they make rock music without taking any drugs stronger than light-beer? Where did the Peter Bjorn and John rock music come from?

PB&J did not talk that much about this interesting subject. Not at all, as a matter of fact. But during a flight home from London something else came up. The band started to remember their years in elementary school and among the subjects was the frustration of listening to and sometimes having to play in school orchestras.

Being musically interested kids all they wanted to do was to play modern music in a band. Unfortunately that did not happen. Instead they stayed at home and made music on their tape decks.

But as grownups, the memory of the sound of the Swedish music school orchestras from hell wasn't really that bad. When Peter Bjorn and John thought about it, they realized it was kind of fantastic.

The timbre of a bunch of youngsters trying to play saxophone and failing is a good sound. The sound of a violin being played by a beginner who hates it is superb.

Soon the idea of making an instrumental album with these types of sounds seemed like a great idea. And since the childhood of each of the three members was quite similar (growing up bored in small villages located near water in the north of Sweden), Peter Bjorn and John decided to have the themes of water and boredom as inspiration for the record.

The title of the album Seaside Rock came naturally.

Seaside Rock:

01 Inland Empire
02 Say Something (Mukiya)
03 Favour of the Season
04 Next Stop Bjursele
05 School of Kraut
06 Erik's Fishing Trip
07 Needles and Pills
08 Norrlands Riviera
09 Barcelona
10 At the Seaside

Peter, mostly, but also Bjorn and John:

08-16 Copenhagen, Denmark - Rust (Peter Morén solo)
08-17 Malmo, Sweden - Malmofestivalen (Peter Morén solo)
08-28 Bradford, England - St. Georges Music Hall (Peter Morén solo) *
08-29 Northampton, England - Roadmender (Peter Morén solo) *
08-30 London, England - The Fly (Peter Morén solo)
08-30 Birmingham, England - Moseley Folk Festival (Peter Morén solo)
08-31 London, England - Regents Park (Peter Morén solo) *!
09-03 Stockholm, Sweden - Debaser Medis (Amnesty International Benefit) ^
09-11 Norrköping, Sweden - Hugo's
09-16 London, England - Koko
09-20 Recife, Brazil - Theatre UFPE
09-23 Sao Paulo, Brazil - Studio SP
09-24 Sao Paulo, Brazil - Studio SP
09-27 Buenos Aires, Argentina - OneDotZero

* with Jose Gonzalez
! with Juana Molina
^ with the Concretes, First Floor Power, Kullrusk