Who's In The Back door?

With all the retro-sixties rock coming out of Sweden (Dungen, The Hives, The Works), one could mistakenly think that Sweden was somehow a land that time forgot where the sixties never fell out of fashion.
In fact the opposite was quite true for pioneering garage rockers The Backdoor Men and their contemporaries The Stomachmouths. In 1980 when the group first formed, as The Pow, mod was hardly something understood by their fellow Swedes - who preferred reggae, new wave or heavy metal - and the sharply dressed outcasts were constantly derided or attacked. Their home town of Almhult has the claim to fame of being the site of the first Ikea store, if that's any indication of the culture the group was up against. In 1984 with the tiny mod scene splintering and otherwise deteriorating, the group changed their name to The Backdoor Men and cultivated a turbo-charged sound that fused the sounds of English punk with sixties garage.

Along with a clear influence from the Rolling Stones & Them, the band owed much to the music of the Sonics, the Chocolate Watch Band and the Music Machine (covers of the three bands are included with this anthology). In contrast to contemporaries the Stomachmouths, the music of the Backdoor Men is a great deal more jangly, with slower tempos and more noticeable shades of soul and R&B latent from their mod days.
(Description Published By Aquarius Records)

The Backdoor Men
"Sodra Esplanaden"
Reissue Is Out In Subliminal Sounds



Audio Clips:

"Out Of my Mind"
"Inside Out, Upside Down"
"Magic Girl"