The Nomads (swe)

Formed in 1981 when Hans Östlund and Nick Vahlberg met at school in their home suburb Solna, outside of Stockholm, Sweden, discovered that they had the same musical tastes and decided to start a band. The music they liked was American punk like the Ramones, the Stooges, the New York Dolls and the Sonics, and this inspiration became the foundation for the Nomads’ music. The band’s first record release came in November 1981 when Hans’s dad put out a 7” single on his own label. In 1982 they signed to Amigo Records who put out their second single and started preparing for their first full-length release. This was ”Where the wolf bane blooms”, which came out in late 1983. This mini-LP was a massive success among critics in Sweden and spread the word about the Nomads outside of Sweden. Closer Records in France was the first label to sign the Nomads outside of Scandinavia and at the end of 1984, coinciding with the release of the band’s second mini-LP ”Temptation pays double”, the Nomads went on their first European tour. The Nomads reputation had by this time travelled to the USA and in early 1985 a compilation album of the best songs from the mini-LPs called ”Outburst” came out on the American Homestead label. ”Outburst” became very successful in the US: the influential writer Robert Christgau went as far as to call it ”the best neo-garage album ever made” and it went to # 12 in the US Rock national indie-chart. From 1987 and onwards the band has continued to release albums (”Hardware” (Amigo ‘87), ”All wrecked up” (Amigo ‘89), ”Sonically Speaking” (Sonet ‘91), ”Powerstrip” (Sonet ‘94) and ”The cold hard facts of life” (Lance Rock ‘96) and has gradually refined the Nomads sound without ever losing any of the power and energy of the early days. In 1999 The Nomads signed to White Jazz Records, home of the Hellacopters and many other luminaries of the ”new wave” of punk/garage/rock ’n’ roll bands that have emerged from Scandinavia in recent years. This was of course a logical step – the Nomads are hailed as a major influence by most of these bands. To date White Jazz has released the album ”Big Sound 2000” (’99) and the single ”The King of Night Train” (featuring backing vocals by the amazing team of Joey Ramone and Handsome Dick Manitoba). April 2001 – the year of the Nomads’ 20th anniversary! - will see the release of a brand new album: ”Up-tight”. Long time collaborator and unofficial fifth Nomad Chips K has once again handled production duties and this might their best one yet…