Peter, Bjorn & John - Young Folks

Peter, Bjorn & John are an indie band from Sweden.  Together since 1999, Writer's Block is their 3rd and most recent album.  I haven't heard much from them, although after hearing this song , featuring Victoria  Bergsman of The Concretes,  on one of those cell phone commercials on tv , I've had "Young Folks" stuck in my head.

From their official website peter,bjornandjohn.com: With the SONG – first single”Young Folks” they have created an indie-anthem for 2006. It starts off with surging, funky drums, addictive maraca shaking, crazy bongos and a pleasantly lo-fi bass-line; all this wrapped up in a whistling melody – the result sounds like a mix of a wild west B-movie and a schoolyard full of fuel-engine kids. The song, that features Peter in a duet with Viktoria Bergsman of The Concretes, deals with that first period in brand new relationship when you are nervous and dazed, when you’ve just met and only want to be with each other whilst at the same time worrying about how much you want to show your true self to the other person so as not to scare them.

”If I told you things I did before,
told you how I used to be,
would you go along with someone like me?”
- Young Folks

~kristine

PB&J AT FIRST AVE, Minneapolis ■ Bjorn vs Peter ■ Heather from Au Revoir Simone joins on stage for "Young Folks" ■ Setlist

Kristine have forced my hand on my PB&J concert review, which, of course, I have been too lazy to actually write about. I wanted to mention that they played here May 9th, and here are some photographs from Brody.

I just wanted to mention a few things about the show: "Young Folks" was the obvious favorite. Before the show even began, there was a pre-recorded sitar (an Indian instrument) version of "Young Folks" and everyone was going apes off that and the band haven't even gotten on stage!

The other thing I wanted to mention was that the last song on the encore is "Teen Love", which is a Concretes cover. What's interesting about the Concretes and how they're related to PB&J is that Victoria (I think), is the singer on the studio version of "Young Folks". The other amazing thing about this live rendition is that they incorporated "Teenage Kicks" into the song ("I wanna hold ya, wanna hold you tight, get teenage kicks all through the night, alright!"). Only the really old folks got the Undertones joke anyway :/

I asked Peter later on why they decided to put in the Teenage Kicks line and he said, "we just one day made it up and put it in to the song, because they sound similiar to 'Teen Love'."

PS, added the German version of Young Folks. Must be seen to be believed.

UPDATE: Hear three covers of "Young Folks" at cover lover.

vu Links: www.peterbjornandjohn.com