“Euro Trash”, the newest album from Swedish melodic skate punk rockers VENEREA is out today via SBAM Records, and to celebrate, we have teamed up with the band to give you their first hand commentary about each and every jam from the record!
Euro Trash – the diverse yet nostalgic album of Skatepunks Venerea has been produced by Gustav Brunn of Atlas Losing Grip at the legendary Tambourine Studios in Malmö. It’s exeptional singles “Blind Faith”, “A Case Of Corona” and the summer anthem “Summer of 94” with a guest appearance of Millencolin, Adhesive and No Fun At All – have prepared punk rock fans for one of the most interesting albums of the year.
Venerea were the second generation of mid-nineties punk rock with tours through Europe, North America and Asia including Vans Off The Wall, sharing stages with Bad Religion, NOFX and the likes.The band’s popular brand of melodic hardcore and dual guitar/dual vocal approach is instantly recognizable and the new tunes will stick like glue.
The broad variety of topics and lyrics show the different inspirations of the band: from humorous stories to political ones. Venerea are story-tellers. The biography of an ex-drummer’s wife. The story of their musical upbringing. The story of a refugee’s father.
Euro Trash is probably everything but trash, but a collection of punk rock stories worth listening to!
Venerea first rose to infamy during the Swedish mid-nineties punk boom, with genre-defining albums such as Both Ends Burning, Shake Your Booty and One Louder.
The band’s popular brand of melodic hardcore & dual guitar/dual vocal approach is instantly recognizable & the new tunes will stick like glue.
Track by track commentary, by bassist / vocalist Mike:
Chanson D’Armour – Flygare & I harmonize all the way through this, which I always love to do. We recorded a version for our last LP Last Call For Adderall but weren’t happy with the chorus so we rewrote it & now I think it does the trick. The outro is unusually epic for us.
A Case Of Corona – The second single. I’m very fond of writing lyrics with idiot narrators; this one wishes Covid upon his partner so that he can feel needed again. The double time bit near the end may be new drummer John’s first arrangement idea for us.
Summer Of 94 – The first single & a bit of a hit if I may say so myself. Daniel (guitar) had the riffs & asked me to write lyrics about what a great hot summer that was with a lot of American punk bands we liked getting popular among our friends & Swedish contemporaries following suit, & also our national footyball team taking the World Cup bronze. I don’t know shit about football but it’s always fun to write to order. Since we mention other Swedish bands we thought we’d ask some of their singers to join in, which Kola (Millencolin), Ingo (No Fun At All) & Geir (Adhesive) did. Yay! (Rodrigo from Satanic Surfers, who also drummed for us a couple of records ago, wanted to do it too but couldn’t make it in the end.)
The Nobodies – One of my personal favorites, I really dig the tempo changes & harmonies & think the chorus is particularly strong. Someone said the verse reminded them of Therapy? which was a surprise but now I hear it. The lyrics are about a musician touring because that’s his only way of connecting to other people, which is probably more common than one would like to imagine.
Blind Faith – Third single, sung by Flygare, about a man having to send his kid off to another country to be safe. Probably the most emo thing here & at least ten years old but it didn’t quite work before. Producer Gustav Brunn (Atlas Losing Grip) shreds a bit near the end. One of John’s favorites.
My Kind Of Stupid – A bit poppier with another idiot narrator. I certainly hope all fellow feminists appreciate the irony here. One of Daniel’s favorites.
Burning Every Bridge – More vocal harmonies, but more unusual ones for us I think, along with the syncopated verses. Those airy bridges leave huge spaces for the bass to wander in. A favorite of Flygare’s, I believe.
Sirens Call – This is probably the hardcoriest song & we originally planned to open the record with it but someone at the label thought it’s the weakest track so we moved it to the second side but it still gets pole position.
The Show Must Go Wrong – New lyrics about the necessity of sucking to music written in the late 90s so it sounds a bit like Both Ends Burning. Another favorite of mine.
DNA vs DIY & Diet Plan B – A two part song about our ex-drummer Martin’s wife Aija, written for her autobiographical photo book Do Not Cover, which is incidentally released on the same day as our LP. It was great fun to sort of interview her & base the lyrics on that.
Some Girls Don’t Like Misfits – Another fun rocker, about the dark side of superfandom. I often realize something unpleasant about myself & amplify it to the point of disability humor in lyric form.
The Overly Friendly Giant – Definitely the funniest song here & a true story to boot. Love it.
My Imaginary Foe – I vividly remember writing that right after hearing Bad Religion’s My Head Is Full Of Ghosts for the first time, so that’s another older banger that never quite worked before.
Subterranea – My favorite Venerea song at the moment, about the childlike imaginary dreamland of creativity, inspired by Robert Pollard in a roundabout way.
Loose End – Sometimes I write these little in medias res snippets that leave a lot to the imagination, which is one of the perks of brevity. Then we added the big outro, which made it a fitting closer. We’d planned to have a trumpet there but couldn’t find one, which was probably a good thing in retrospect.
