Listen Date: May 06, 2020

In 2013, The Mexican President had the Swedish Prime Minister over for a handshake

Everyone in the listening party is a fan of John Grant, so we tried to listen to some his earlier band, The Czars, over on soundcloud. It didn’t work great for four people listening simultaneously. Buffering and bullshit. I recommend checking it out.

So, due the facts that:

we couldn’t really all listen to it and
John Grant is neither Swedish or Mexican, he is not really part of this edition.

Among the Scandinavian peoples, Danes seem to have made the earliest arrivals in present-day Mexico, starting with Jacob the Dacian, son of King John of Denmark arriving in the mid 1500’s. Also in the 16th century, it seems that some Danish pirates got washed up or otherwise settled down in the area around Oaxaca, which would explain why a group of Native Mexicans were found to be speaking archaic Danish two centuries later.

And the Norwegians had what was described by a visiting Norwegian at the start of the 20th century as a “colony” of Norwegians in Veracruz that excited Norwegians in Norway enough that there was a plan to ship Norwegian houses and Norwegian farmers to Mexico. But then Mexico had a war. But no Norwegian- Mexican or Danish Mexican ever became Miss Mexico. But a Swedish- Mexicans did. Another became Miss Sweden. Another became a footballer. There were also a couple of artists and writers of note. And there was Yolanda “Tongolele” Montez. She was a Swedish-American who moved to Mexico, so I’m counting that. Throughout her long career as a dancer, she also starred in several films, including Isle of the Snake People, where she starred alongside Boris Karloff. It’s kinda crap, but you can watch it here.

POP

by DATAPOP

In 2013 a Swedish Pop musician had another Swedish pop musician over for a glass of wine

DATAPOP are Anders Wilhelm and Mikael Larsson. The band formed in 2013. Whether or not they enjoyed wine in that year is pure speculation based on the photo of the pair above. They are from Sweden and enjoy making “making melodic machine pop influenced by Kraftwerk. Swedish melancholia meets european electronic kraut. Tounge in cheek minimalistic lyrics . They dare to choose their own path with a unique sound, avantgarde but with a loving respect to the electronic music history”. (band notes)

Listening to it again yesterday while I started writing this, i once again found it pleasant… fun… enjoyable. A bit of variety and some great sounds, but a bit low calorie. Great for a cafe, but i can’t really recall much of it the next day.